Publish & Be Damned @ Pick Me Up

Acclaimed independent self-publishing fair, Publish & Be Damned, hits Somerset House this Sunday for an exclusive event at Pick Me Up.

This special edition of the fair, which usually takes place every summer in East London, will see the Pick Me Up gallery spaces host 20 stalls, each packed with independent and self-published printed matter, including magazines, journals, zines and artists' books.




Visit the Publish & Be Damned website.

Images: Fever Zine

Evening Tweed @ Pick Me Up

Evening Tweed is a collective of artists, illustrators and designers with its own room at Pick Me Up. Members Owen Gildersleeve and Thomas Forsyth explain the concept behind their space and the ideas surrounding their work for the fair...

Owen: We were asked to create a room which represented the universe of Evening Tweed. We're all country bumpkins at heart, so we thought it'd be quite nice to do a country manor set-up. With Somerset House being such a grand building, we thought it would be quite fitting, and it worked out far better than we could have planned.

Thomas: We've tried to work intuitively with the space and pull some organised clutter together.

Owen: A lot of it's hired. Lots of trips to various prop hire places and searching on the internet. At first it seemed like a daunting task, but it's come together, which is great.

We've done a special series of country manor prints, which we did specially for the show and specially for the theme of the room. We've all created new work for the show and we're also exhibiting some older stuff, so it's a real mix.

Thomas: I've been doing the drawing tops for a few years now, but the pencil coat-hooks are fresh. I pulled a batch together specially for the show.

Owen: We wanted the room to be a place where people could relax, chill out and enjoy the work - a little safe haven.

Tom's spinning tops have been getting a lot of attention. In a room with lots of stillness, they catch your attention.

Thomas: It's nice having something that's a little bit interactive. I've been doing drawing workshops with all sorts of toys - drawing toys mostly - but we didn't bring interactivity in loads for this show, just little touches.


Visit the Evening Tweed website.

Images: Sylvain Deleu

Nobrow @ Pick Me Up

Natasha Demetriou joined Nobrow six months ago. As the imprint’s graphic designer, she works under the creative direction of founders Alex Spiro and Sam Arthur. Here she explains a little about their history and what they're showing at Pick Me Up...

"Nobrow began with Nobrow 1. Alex and Sam invited 24 artists to submit work based on the theme ‘Gods and Monsters’.

They’ve since gone on to do other, more narrative-led books, but still follow the practice of using spot colour printing methods, a method little used today that nonetheless has a very distinctive look. It gives us the opportunity to print on amazing paper with really bright inks, so that the illustration work really stands out.

Nobrow is their baby, but I like to think that I have a little bit of input into how things look as well. I work as a design assistant, sometimes talking about colours a bit, but mostly I’m concerned with the physical elements of the books and print production.

We didn't create anything specifically for Pick Me Up, as everything was already in the pipeline. We just pushed things forward so that we could have them ready for the show. Rise and Fall was launched at this event and it's done exceptionally well. It's a concertina book illustrating the rise of the dinosaurs and their inevitable downfall, by artist Micah Lidberg.

Pick Me Up is currently the only place where the whole of the Nobrow collection is on sale. There are a couple of titles missing; one is sold out and the other one wasn't ready in time.

We’re actually opening up a gallery and a shop on the 27th of May on 62 Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. We’ve basically built a wall and split our studio in half. We work in one half, the other half is where the gallery / shop is going to be, and downstairs is the print room. This will be our flagship store..."

Visit the Nobrow website.

Image: Sylvain Deleu

Peepshow Collective @ Pick Me Up

Usually based in East London, the Peepshow Collective has created a makeshift studio and workshop in its exhibition space at Pick Me Up. Artists Chrissie MacDonald and Spencer Wilson explain how they got involved...

Chrissie: Our history with Pick Me Up's curator, Claire Caterall, is that we used to take part in the V&A Village, which she also curated.

Because she wanted Pick Me Up to be more than just a space with pictures hanging on the wall, and actually have things going on, we thought we'd create a space where on some days we could run a print workshop. People can just come along, select some blocks which we've made and create a one-off print.

We've also set up a bench, so we can do our work from here. It makes it feel more like a working space, rather than just pictures on walls.

Spencer: Around 85% of the work on display is new and there are around 7 artists from Peepshow represented in our space.

It's not all of us, as Marie O'Connor is living in Sweden and Elliot Thoburn is living in Japan, so they're not involved this time around. Also Pete Mellor does animation so he's not exhibiting.

Essentially, the work we produce tends to be under our own individual names, but also under the umbrella of Peepshow. Collectively we're a brand, but individually we work in our our style, so our style's not defined by Peepshow... we define Peepshow.

Chrissie: When we do collaborative projects, whether it's an animation, or an installation, that's when we come together and merge our work, and that's a Peepshow job. At Pick Me Up, it's each individual's work, but we've also collaborated to create the display units and the printing workshop.

The next Peepshow printing workshops will take place on...

Wedneday, April 28th
Friday, April 30th
Saturday, May 1st
Sunday, May 2nd

Visit the Peepshow website.

Image: Sylvain Deleu

Photos from the Pick Me Up private view

Photographs: Sylvain Deleu
View more photos from the Pick Me Up private view here.

It's Nice That showreel @ Pick Me Up

Alex Bec and Will Hudson of design blog It’s Nice That have curated a showreel of short film and animation for the fair, which will screen on a loop for its duration. Here, Alex explains a bit more about their involvement in Pick Me Up...

"We've done pop-up shops before, and exhibitions too, and we wanted to try something a little bit different.

We've had this idea to curate film screenings for ages. This was a great opportunity to put the first one together and Somerset House were up for giving up the space, putting a great projector in there, and good speakers...

There's so much great video content on It's Nice That, and it's almost always seen on a couple of pixels with rubbish sound... it's almost a waste. No one makes a film to be seen that big. It's just a pity that not even the directors have seen it on a big screen, or with good sound.

Needless to say, everything being screened at Pick Me Up has been posted on the blog. Each piece has an ‘It's Nice That’ feel. There's a tone, an aesthetic and a thought. They've all either got a great concept to them, or they're just a little bit of fun..."

Screening setlist:

'Tales Of The Unexpected'
Dir: Carl Burgess

'We Still Got The Taste Dancin' On Our Tongues' - Wild Beasts
Dir: Institute For Eyes

'Dog Judo - Noisebox'
Dir: 12foot6

'Everything Is Everything'
Dir: Koki Tanaka

'Love You Better' - The Maccabees
Dir: Dan Sully

'Remedy For Boredom'
Dir: Bernard Gigounon

Short film for Onedreamrush / Universaleverything
Dir: Maxim Zhestkov + Matt Pyke

'Big Ideas (Don't get any)'
Dir: James Houston

'Football Evolution'
Dir: Chris Palmer

'We Got Time' - Moray McLaren
Dir: David Wilson

'Mardi Gras'
Dir: Keith Loutit

'Going West'
Dir: Andersen M Studio

'Watch Listen Tell - Golden Silvers'
Dir: Dave Tree

'Love Sport Love Paint Balling'
Dir: Grant Orchard

'Mixtape'
Dir: Luke Snellin

'Revenge'
Dir: Lernert & Sander

'The Robot Hand'
Dir: Lejo

Anorak magazine workshops @ Pick Me Up

Known for its illustrated spreads and informative approach to its young readership, children's magazine Anorak will be hosting two workshops at Pick Me Up...

Saturday, 24 April (14:00 - 15:30)

Familiar Features workshop

Visit the Pick Me Up exhibition in the Embankment Galleries at Somerset House to discover more about graphic art and designers...

And then try your hand at designing a stylish magazine or comic with your family!

More info

Saturday, 01 May (10:30 - 16:00)

The lil' Pick Me Up comic workshop

Become a little editor or art director for a day and discover what goes into the making of a comic.

Join the Anorak Magazine team who will take you through the magic of creating your very own comic. Activities will include drawing, writing stories and coming up with games.

More info
Book online

More info on workshops at Pick Me Up can be found here.