Matthew Ritchie, White Cube

White Cube's show for Matthew Ritchie utilised the whole space of the gallery, but I'm not really sure that that was really warranted.  Just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean that it is appropriate...The space somehow felt cluttered and the noise of the guitarists at the opening just lessened the experience too.  A shame, because the paintings on their own said as much to me as all the other stuff and Ritchie is very talented.

D&AD Black Pencil

The internet gets more and more interesting... from reporting about it, to visuals to innovations such as twitter...

This is an interesting technology article about the D&AD's 2008 Black Pencil awards.

Firstly Apple won 2 pencils this year and secondly Projector Inc won a a pencil for their site they designed for Uniglo the Japanese retailer.  I have to admit to spending a few minutes transfixed...

Twitter, is a word that now describes a new kind of internet activity...it's mobile and web microblogging, you are only allowed 140 characters to give updates.

Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Edward de Bono's thinking technique based around 6 differently coloured hats is always interesting, partly from how you can use this technique to problem solve, but also the type of thinking ascribed to a particular coloured hat.  The colours chosen for the hats are based upon the colours used in printing maps.  This technique of using symbolic hats is meant to remove any blocks in problem solving by going through the process logically step by step.

White hat - neutral and objective - pure facts

Red hat - anger/rage/emotions

Black hat - gloomy and negative - why it cannot be done

Yellow hat - sunny and positive

Green hat - creativity and new ideas

blue - control and organisation of thinking process

I've never used this technique myself but I do find it fascinating, almost as fascinating as Luscher's Colour Test, but more on that and colour another day.

Biomimicry - Morphotex

Morphotex is an interesting fabric developed by a Japanese company, Teijin. It is based on biomimicry as it is inspired by the South American butterfly called Morpho.

As part of its camouflage the butterflies wings reflect light.  Morphotex doesn't use any pigments or dyes as it is made from very thin fibres so it is also environmentally friendly as less energy is used to create it.

Morphotex is a highly innovative fabric as it is the first of its kind that doesn't use any pigments.