Pretty Shitty City

I’ve recently left my old job (at Web Media Works) to start up as a freelance designer, trading as The Colour Mill.

My main service will be graphic design, and Im already working on flyers, magazines and websites, and I also have more time to promote Pretty Shitty City and Ice Cream Social.

As you should all know, I’m interested in working on underground, grass-roots projects with creative and ethical values, especially within the local community. So if you need any design work done, please head over to my new site:

http://www.thecolourmill.co.uk/

Thanks, Benjy.

Heres a gallery of drawings from Samuel Jones an illustrator studying at Swansea Met.

Thanks to Dilac, aka Dan Spinks, for sending us this month’s header design… and very festive it is too.

Dilac is an illustrator and painter and the main design honcho for Exist Clothing, you can check out his online portfolio here: http://www.dilac2003.com/

If you’d like to contribute a design, photo, illustration etc. for next month’s header then please email us at hello@prettyshittycity.co.uk.

Images should be supplied in JPEG (or similar) and atleast 750 pixels wide by 280 pixels tall.

Whoops, nearly forgot to plug this.

Its Ice Cream Social* #2 this Saturday at Sin City. We’ve got live music from Pipeworks & The Afterglow, and DJs Chairman Wow!, LGE & me (Benjy).

The £3 entry gets you entry to Sin City’s alt 80s night: Spandex Ballet too, but we’ve got animations and sweets to tempt the kids upstairs.

It all kicks off at 11pm so please arrive early to catch the bands!

http://www.icecreamsocial.co.uk/

The Ice Cream Social* launch night is nearly upon us; with live music from Poq and Tony Tapwater, DJ sets from Outsider (electropunk), LGE & TwoHeadedBoy, plus short films, animations, sweets. Pretty Shitty City expects you all there with bells on.

Heres an example playlist so you can get a feel for the style of music on offer;

Hot Chip, The Gossip, Bloc Party, CSS, The Clash, MIA, Pixies, Arctic Monkeys, Maxïmo Park, LCD Soundsystem, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Animal Collective, The Go! Team, Ian Brown, Interpol, The Postal Service, Daft Punk, Sage Francis, The Libertines, Aphex Twin, New Yong Pony Club, The Knife etc.

So if you like that kind of music, pop down to Ice Cream Social* on Saturday 13th October, entry is £3 and its all happening upstairs at Sin City.

www.icecreamsocial.co.uk

RSVP on the Facebook event page.

The soon to be opened Elysium Gallery (formerly the Exposure Gallery) are seeking artists for solo or group shows and one off events.

Artists working in any media are welcome; e.g. Installation, Interactive/Open Studio, Film, Music, Photography, 3D, Performance, Experimental or Sound etc.

Contact Jon elysiumgallery@yahoo.co.uk or check the Elysium Gallery myspace for more news.

Join Pretty Shitty City’s Group on Flickr to share your photos and designs with everyone.

If the community gets busy easy enough I’ll integrate a feed of the images into this site, allowing anyone have their smut appear on these very pages.

Any photos that are uploaded to the group will automatically be displayed on our new Calendar/Photo Mashup page.

Exist are throwing a party on May 5th featuring live hip-hop, djs & the launch of their brand new tshirt range.

Made to Fade is a series of 4 new collectible tshirts featuring new designs from Dilac, Bird, BingoBoutique and Martipants. Each tshirt is just £20 and they’ll be available online too.

The hip-hop show will feature a live performance from Ralph Rip Shit & Beat Box Fozzy, plus beats all day from Mr Spinks & little chris.

So pop down to Exist.Outlet, (214 Oxford Street, Swansea) on May 5th from 12pm-5pm

http://www.existclothing.com/

Carbon Made is a neat online portfolio made for designers who want to show off their work on the web but have no html knowledge.

Problems with MySpace aside, it’s a great tool for bands and musicians to network with fans, promoters, and other bands. But when it comes to visual artists, it just doesn’t cut it, and whilst Flickr is good for free image hosting, it’s not quite right for a design portfolio.

If your an illustrator, graphic designer or even animator then Carbon Made is perfect. It offers a simple, easy to use layout, a clean & elegant blank canvas for your images and some pretty nice technology such as RSS feeds and Google Analytics integration if that’s what turns you on.

There are limits though, the free plan only allows 5 projects and 35 images. If you want more space and video hosting you’ll need to pay, but its still a great place to start and so much better than MySpace for this sort of thing.

If you give it a go and like it, then feel free to send us a link to your portfolio

http://www.carbonmade.com/

Just a quick round-up of my favourite flyer design’s floating around Swansea at the moment. Select them to see a bigger image.