Introducing Notes on Block, an online dossier unpacking the rich insights and 23-year creative legacy of @blockbranding .
Devised to provide a space for deeper contemplation, Notes on Block explores the agency’s process, personal connections and wandering reflections, both past and present, through an editorial lens.
The first four articles are now live at notesonblock.com (link in bio).
1. To Wander and Rōam: from Perth to Palm Springs by Deborah Thomas
2. Sculpting Support by Rosamund Brennan
3. Making Connections: Denise Kuriger Design by Sarah Langley
4. Hit the Ground Running by Max Veenhuyzen
New year, new portrait. We look forward to sharing some exciting projects we’ve been working on soon. Stay tuned.
Pictured: Column founder Sarah Langley with brand strategist and writer Deborah Thomas.
‘I’m not sure when I first saw Lydia Vance. It was about six years ago, and I had just quit a twelve year job as a postal clerk and was trying to be a writer. I was terrified and drank more than ever. I was attempting my first novel. I drank a pint of whiskey and two six-packs of beer each night while writing. I smoked cheap cigars and typed and drank and listened to classical music on the radio until dawn…’ —| Excerpt from #CharlesBukowski’s ‘WOMEN’ (published 1978).
In May 1974, German conceptual artist Joseph Beuys spent three days locked inside a SoHo art gallery with a wild coyote. His performance piece was called ‘I Like America and America Likes Me.’ His attempts to connect with the coyote were captured on film, from the moment he cautiously entered the room cloaked in felt, to when he finally got the chance to sit, by the window, beside the wild animal. #visualresearch #Blue #1974
Joni Mitchell’s BLUE celebrates its 50th anniversary today. The woman and her music have been such an inspiration to me, especially whilst working on my second manuscript. I even called my novel ‘Blue’ in homage to this album. I remembered thinking that if Joan Didion named her book after The Beatles’ the White Album, then I’m gonna do the same with Joni Mitchell’s BLUE. The essence of my novel is inspired by track 3: ‘Little Green,’ a song written for the baby girl she gave up for adoption when she was 22. Listen to it. Her honesty, the sureness of her message, the clarity of her words, that blissful teetering on the cusp of sadness and happiness, hope and acceptance — I channelled all of this into my own story of a young girl who, like Joni, gives her child up for adoption to continue on her own desired path — and what a wild, creative path it ends up leading to! 💙 #BLUE50 #JoniMitchell #Blue #Muse #1971
‘We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive…” And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: “Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?”’ 🦇 🦇🦇
Opening scene from ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ (first published 1971) by the one and only, #HunterSThompson 📸: #LynnGoldsmith
Joy Division’s debut album ‘Unknown Pleasures’ was released 42 years ago today (1979). Less than a year later, on the eve of their first North American tour and the release of their second album ‘Closer’, lead singer Ian Curtis took his own life. He was 23.
Photo by Anton Corbijn, Lancaster Gate tube station, London, 1979.
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#JoyDivision #UnknownPleasures #FactoryRecords #1979
