Design

6th March 2024  by

Cold Hearted Weather forecast – Spring 

Poem: Cold Hearted Weather forecast – Spring

There’s Ice

Winter continues as Springtime

Bunnies bounce around somewhere if they haven’t already frozen

Frozen Chicks

Frozen Daffodils

Frozen fingers!

It’s what happens

Get on with it

Autumn was before

Get over it

 

Summer happens when it wants to

Temperatures vary

There’s nothing new under the sun if we were to have it!

Rain is guaranteed

 

 

Review: Cold Hearted Weather forecast – Spring

Not the most spring-like of introductions from the weather forecaster!

There’s an emphasis on just how cold things are.

Surely things have started to warm up as it’s March, no?

NO!

‘Ice’ is the first thing that is mentioned and how ‘Ice’ has caused an upset

Not the sort of forecast for those of a sensitive disposition

Best to keep young children away from this meteorological meteorite – boom!

Blunt

Blunt

Blunt

Very cold hearted but honest!

Is honesty always the best policy?

Yes. Especially when it comes to public messages as it affects us all. (I bite my tongue)

I like messages like these to be kept short, succinct and to the point.

Would I need a brolley?

(oh how I laugh out loud) These are the British Isles

Of course I would need a brolley! A ‘just in case brolley’ kept inside my ‘you never know, you might need it’ bag.  (Many, many stories for many other times as I have one or two bags)

Winter appears to be latching on to Spring and it is refusing to let go!

The weather forecaster isn’t trying to dress it up in any other way

All the cute, adorable things associated with the season are at the mercy of this early Impish Spring!

Autumn, it exists, yes but it’s firmly in the past

Summer makes up its own mind about its relationship with the sunshine

Nothing in general is 100% guaranteed, is it?

But the fact that rain is, I find a reasonable and reassuring message

There’s never an excuse to get caught out by it.

Those who are exposed to the information are being told to take the facts on board and the best way to respond is to get on with it and to get over it!

It’s the weather, deal with it!

A humorous little poem.

 

 

in Design / Editorial / Poetry / reviews
3rd January 2024  by

Voice

Poem: Voice

What you want to say

What you need to say

How are you to say it

 

Excuse me please

I’m not down on my knees

 

A penny for your thoughts

In exchange for one or two of mine

Once upon a rhyme…

 

OI!

ARE YOU LISTENING?

 

 

 

Review: Voice

The Voice! Available in many languages and accents, the expressive and natural communication tool that is the human mouthpiece with its sound!

A voice is Important to all especially to poets and script writers, the wordy artists! The words need to confidently leap off the page and present themselves to the hearts and minds of the listener or reader. Words connect and voices are powerful!

The poet’s voice starts with an instruction of how it’s done and is saying it in three small steps. Ok, it sounds simple enough, I’ll give it a go, this mini lesson on how to be a poet. (Oh, how I’m laughing inside as it’s rude to laugh out loud at this!)

 

Step 1.The want

Step 2.The need

Step 3.The how

 

Sounds like the poet is warming up before the poem has started to be read to an audience. The poet is being polite with saying ‘please’ at the start but immediately says next that they are not going to beg for attention! That’s a bit blunt and maybe a bit cocky? Or is it? Surely poet, you’re going to need all the ears you can get, no? You don’t want to put anyone’s nose out of joint! Ears are just as important as the mouth with the voice!  I was with you poet when you were being polite… and… I still am because I am curious to see where you’re going to take me with this. I’ll hang around for a few more of your lines. I can be polite too.

The poet is continuing to warm up by instigating a conversation. How quaint. How cool, How confident that it is to be reciprocated…

The poem starts with “Once upon a rhyme…”

I’m expecting something to come along and to be met with captivating cadence but I don’t get the chance to settle into it and I’m met with the poet’s abrupt reaction to the audience!

The poet isn’t getting anything back from the audience

Politeness has gone well out of the window

The poet raises their voice and shouts oi! in an attempt to get attention!

This, I find hilarious. The poet has resorted to an instinctive ‘plan b’

to get noticed and to make the audience feel they are rude by not listening.

 

May I just say to you poet, “OI!”  It’s worked on me, your ‘Oi!’,  I have noticed you but I was paying attention in the first place.  .

This little poem is fun and a good lesson on how to be and not to be bold.

The contrast of what I was expecting to what I got in the end, as the reader, has lassoed me in. It’s how you did it!

A piece of theatre.

I have been charmed.

 

 

 

 

 

in Design / Editorial / Poetry / reviews
2nd January 2024  by

Espresso, my ritual 

Poem: Espresso, my ritual

 

A polite nudge to start the day

where silence will be placed out of sight and out of the way

Stretch and release last night’s final yawn

Again I feel I am here

Again to be re-born

 

The wild cat is starting to gradually purr

What lies ahead?

What’s due to occur?

 

Inhaling the uplifting aroma from a magic bean

The one that is roasted with that much needed caffeine

A mini lightning bolt

A morning jolt

 

Confidently announcing itself

with a sophisticated pulsating roar

Stand to attention

And watch it pour

 

Temperature perfect

With just one shot

It’s just how I like it

It’s not too… hot

 

 

Review: Espresso, my ritual

It’s intimate. It’s vivid. There’s a strong feeling of anticipation. I am with the poet during the whole orderly early morning yet exciting process and enjoying every minute.

That ‘nudge’ must be the first thought before getting out of bed; the thought of the thing that is needed to start the day ahead. It’s not a one off and this behaviour has become a regular thing. It feels good. It does good. Combatting the bad. It’s powerful stuff and the ritual is established.

The silence from the night is replaced by a gradual awakening of the senses.

Releasing the final yawn from the previous night is a strong visual. Released, yes but the yawn is being kept in its place and not permitted to enter the new day that lies ahead.

The word ‘Again’ mentioned twice reinforces the pattern established by this ritual. I find that solid and reassuring.

Positive statements of gratitude are what I’m seeing here. Good early morning mantras to accommodate the first coffee of the morning. Being alive and daily renewal with the words ‘I am here’ and ‘to be re-born’

I’m imagining the ‘Wild Cat’ with its purring referencing the sound of the coffee machine starting to warm up gradually. A soothing sound first thing especially on a dark winter’s morning whilst beginning to contemplate the day ahead.

Then there’s a sudden change of tempo with the coffee aroma

Penetrative rhyming with ‘magic bean and caffeine’  ‘lighting bolt and morning jolt’

There’s the trigger and what happens as a result!

It’s confident. It has my attention.

The roar and the pour visual is like being at the theatre.

‘One shot’ and ‘not too hot’ satisfyingly concludes the poem.

As the reader, I could read it again and again. It’s just how I like it.

 

 

 

in Advertising / Design / Editorial / food / Poetry / reviews
6th December 2023  by

Cold Hearted Weather forecast – Winter

Cold Hearted Weather forecast – Winter

It’s ice

It’s snow

It’s winter

It’s what happens

GET ON WITH IT!

Autumn was before

Spring will be next

Summer happens when it wants to

Temperatures vary

There’s nothing new under the sun if we were to have it

GET OVER IT!

Rain is guaranteed

 

Review: Cold Hearted Weather forecast – Winter

Oh my word!

It’s blunt, blunt, blunt

Nothing at all cosy about this forecast!

Should there be?

First and foremost, should the words of the presenter offer reassurance even when a gale force wind or a snowstorm is scientifically predicted to be on its way?  Ooh scary times ahead! The ‘end of the world’ could sound ‘not that bad’ if presented in a friendly manner, eh?

Is it best not to know of these things and just let the weather ‘get on with it’, (as it says in the poem) The weather, by the very nature of it will do just that. It always has done.

I personally do like this forecast because it’s honest and to the point. I know where I am with it. There doesn’t need to be an intense, overly swirly graphic visual attached with this just because ‘the technology’ is there to do it. It’s unnecessary and boring.

Design should be more sophisticated than that. It should be about who it is for and not the competing ego’s that have been given the ‘go ahead’ by the clueless in charge, who are clutching at the frayed purse strings and handing out paychecks without any design credentials of their own. It shows in the quality of the Art direction of the work. ‘Shouting the loudest’ does not make, whatever it is, the best idea. The not listening, the not understanding, its inappropriateness and what is lacking is what is on show. It’s short lived and a vacant ‘vanity’ project. Vulgar. The Bendy bus on London roads. Remember that? It’s just one example of some bright spark’s way of thinking. This idea did not serve and it failed.

Back to the poem. Once the simple facts are known in the first four lines, I’m getting a clear message of what to do!  Knowledge is power and all that.  I’m being told to Get on with it! I’m telling myself I need to pull up my thermal socks!

A quick nod to the previous season and the following one is all that’s needed. Remain present, but be aware of what’s happened before and the anticipation of what’s due to happen next.

Summer is hilarious and known to the presenter to be temperamental

‘The sun’ can indeed be unreasonable with its peekaboo behaviour behind the clouds.

According to the forecaster nothing new can happen when under it so the ‘advice’ is to Get over it! Love it! and I’m accepting of it.

The finishing touch of the rain, does it for me. It’s nice to have the reassurance that many things in life are not guaranteed. Is it cold hearted of me to say this? No, just a truth. Therefore ‘Be prepared’ is the overall message I’m getting here. No excuse not to be, right? With this style of report I will always be sure to have my brolly with me!

I will get over it but my aim is to enjoy it while I’m here. Living is about the endurance and enjoyment of it.

A charming and economic poem offering lots to think about.

A weather report does not need to be long winded, (pardon the pun) now does it?

 

 

 

in Design / Editorial / Graphic Design / London / Poetry / reviews
29th September 2023  by

Envy innit?

Poem: Envy innit?

The aim of those who covet is for one day they long to be coveted too!

What a waste of energy

A stunted evolution

 

Oxen, Asses, and all that

 

You’ve seen one ass, you’ve seen them all

I yawn

 

 

 

Review:Envy innit? 

 

An amusing and wise little poem. The starting point of this short poem is with a regional term, innit? I’ve not ventured much beyond the M25 but I recognise the term ‘innit’ as something familiar from my North London and East London days. ‘Innit’ is indeed a London ‘fing.

The title get’s my attention and I’m reading it with a London dialect in mind.

This serves me as I’m already in that mode when I get to “Oxen, Asses and all that”

A good conversational starter of “let’s talk about this and this is what I think”

A great opening statement with those who desire the things of others and that their desire is for the things that they have, and aim to have, to be hankered over too.

How very shallow and hollow. Is this what most people do? “Look at me”, accompanied with a “what I’ve got status”

Or is the acquiring of ‘things’ with the desire for the items and apparent status achieved to be coveted or is it a reaction to a trauma? They are in a position to get things where they couldn’t before therefore they…

Buy stuff, buy stuff, buy stuff, buy buy buy! Accumulate, accumulate squirrel-like and then? Unease or social discomfort eradicated? Or would they just keep going?

Justified actions? From their own perspective, absolutely yes.

It looks as though they will keep going if the aim is to reach an even higher status.

But who would know of this unless it’s a parent, or a grandparent or someone close who were at the beginning of a person’s life and know of their story? It would only be from their perspective wouldn’t it? The perspective of someone naturally exhibiting a proud bias. Perhaps not broad enough? and perhaps with a tinge of a ‘rose tinted spectacle’ view.

The overt display and the nodding of heads from others is a sign of acknowledgement, acceptance and being ‘liked’ by a certain social group and fitting in. Has this always been the case? Now it is facilitated by social media platforms demonstrating edited and curated behaviours to be shared.

Seeking to be coveted is definitely a waste of energy rendering the seeker emotionally vacant. What a time consuming and costly faff!

Human beings are indeed capable of doing and achieving so many good things with not everything needing to be trumpeted.  Coveting and buying stuff and buying into commercially driven ideas can stunt evolution and distract an individual from their own personal aims or aim in life.

The poet is referencing well-known biblical ancient text when it comes to the oxen and asses.

What is the modern-day equivalent?

The modern ‘jumbo’ cars of today? Other modes of personal transportation? (another story for another time) The oxen and asses from long ago were needed right? Are the jumbo oversized cars of today needed? How did humanity cope before, with the size of vehicles in relation to the size of people? Are we as humans, not sophisticated enough to design vehicles that are safe, stylish and not needing to be ginormous?

Is someone or something ‘spinning a yarn’ here with the claimed benefits of these beasts on wheels?

I get the feeling that the poet regards the behaviours of those who covet and what drives them as something not being a new phenomenon as they recognise the pattern. When the behaviour is seen over and over again and not likely to change it bores the poet into writing this poem. I like the punchy conclusion where the poet refers to those who engage in this sort of behaviour as asses!

A satisfying little read.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in Design / Editorial / Inspirational / London / Photography / reviews / Uncategorised