Octoblog

February is LGBT History Month, and at the end of last year Museum of Liverpool sent out an online call for local LGBT personal histories with plans to display a curated range of seldom-told tales of the city in commemoration of the month. The brief was to use visual and written media to tell a personal story about one’s life, to …...

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• softoctopus
• February 10, 2021

At the start of 2020, Soft Octopus Design Studio was commissioned by Liverpool Hope University to work on a collaboration with Tate Liverpool. Titled Hope and Resistance, the exhibition’s aim was to present the artefacts, stories and artwork of young people living on the Palestinian West Bank who had responded to the question – What do you want to tell the …...

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• softoctopus
• December 22, 2020

Last week I headed into Liverpool city centre for the first time in more than half a year. It felt peculiar. I believe that many of us have now become so used to consuming art in all its forms as an online activity, that it feels genuinely strange to set foot inside public spaces once again. With every show cancelled …...

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• softoctopus
• September 17, 2020

We’ve all been there… Whether it be waiting online for tickets to become available for a must-see, but massively popular concert, or hanging on until the last second to hit the ‘buy’ button on Ebay, I’m familiar with the rush of adrenaline and excitement that comes from winning and the heart sinking despondency that ensues as someone else snatches away …...

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• softoctopus
• September 4, 2020

During lockdown, certain once important facets of everyday life have become trivial and smaller things that may have previously seemed inconsequential have taken on greater significance. Life for us all has changed and a new way of living has become routine. ...

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• softoctopus
• August 10, 2020

With little else to do during a quarantine, almost all of us are moving our social interactions online. Facebook, WhatsApp, Zoom, Skype and FaceTime are the new replacements for catching up over a cup of coffee or glass of wine. The times they are a changing, as Bob Dylan would groan. Somewhere online, I saw someone crudely flip the familiar …...

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• softoctopus
• March 28, 2020

2020 hasn’t been quite the happy new year that we all wished each other just three months ago, has it? With floods verging on biblical, the realisation that Brexit is a sad reality and now a public health crisis to contend with, can things get any worse? Sadly I fear they can. Back in the eighties when I was designing …...

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• softoctopus
• March 23, 2020

It’s great being busy and thankfully I nearly always am. This is why it’s taken me so long to find time to get my own house in order. But I’ve now got around to assembling the new office furniture that’s been in the corner of my studio since last Autumn and more importantly I’ve updated my ancient website. Cue fanfare! …...

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• softoctopus
• February 25, 2020

I've been a fan of Keith Haring's work since I was a design student in the 1980s. Pre-internet, it wasn't easy keeping up with art trends, particularly those outside the UK. I came across his work in The Face magazine which was something of a style bible - the art and fashion Ying to the Yang of Smash Hits magazine's pop and frippery....

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• October 1, 2019