Along with a mention by Nicholas Clee over on Bookbrunch, this week has seen me trying to 'keep it together' with a guest post on the blog of popular crime writer Sam Hayes, as well as waxing predictive over on Beat, a cultural magazine for Windsor. (Thanks to editor Melanie Gow for inviting me to write for her.)
In rather sad news, the dedicatee of The New Goodbye, Never, the Samoyed I've shared my life with for the past eleven and a half years, was put to sleep peacefully in the garden last Friday. Hopefully the dedication of the novel stands as testament to the important part she played in my life. Life is proving strange without her.
Cat Lane isn’t the only one of LCC’s summer crop to have been involved in The New Goodbye. Last summer at Creative Review I was lucky enough to enjoy the company of Yong Ping Loo, who spent 6 weeks working with me as a design and production intern, as well as helping out at CR’s Click conference in Singapore. Yong Ping has kindly provided the behind-the-scenes videography of Nicole’s cover shoot.
I caught up with him again recently, as he prepares to step into the working world, having just submitted the final project for his Graphic Media Design degree with the London College of Communication (LCC). His Graduation Degree Show, Power Off, starts at the end of this week.
You’re coming to the end of your time at university. What does the future hold?
I am trying to arrange and plan as many placements as I can, put together a good degree show and other exhibitions. Hopefully all my hard work will pay off and one thing will lead to another, a job in London.
Before coming to London you had already gained a diploma in Mass Communications from Singapore’s Ngee An college. Are there any striking differences between studying in the two cultures?
Although Singapore has a pretty diverse society, you get to meet a wider variety of people of different backgrounds, ethnicity and cultures in London. This makes the learning experience here more varied and interesting.
Compared to my counterparts in Singapore, I had more time on my hands in London. Though we have very busy periods here, everything is spread out comfortably and feels a little less stressful. This affords more creative experimentation, and allows for freelance jobs and work experience. And there is a far larger and more established creative community in London.
You attended Creative Review’s first Click conference in Singapore after your internship with us. Did you pick up any insights into the differences between working practices over there compared to in Britain?
I believe clients here are more daring, which allows the industry to produce more groundbreaking work. Singapore has a very good and internationally competent creative industry but it doesn’t have the recognition that the UK enjoys. Singapore is a small country compared to Britain. In London it feels like there is more room to grow, for both big and small fishes, with enough food to go round for everybody.
As someone who has benefited from the experience of work placements, how do you feel about the culture of unpaid internships within the design industry?
I believe there should be a minimum wage for internships within the design industry as some students may struggle to support themselves and their study. That being said, having done it myself, it is not impossible if you work hard and are sufficiently self motivated.
You’ve done a large amount of voluntary environmental work for organistions such as ECO Singapore and the British Council. How do you balance this moral standpoint with trying to develop a career in advertising, where a large proportion of the industry is there to persuade people to buy stuff they probably don’t need and that’ll just hang around for a few years before becoming landfill.
I am still trying to strike a balance, It has been pretty good being on LCC’s advertising pathway as we focus on environmental, political, social and cultural issues. And we tend to question the ethics and norms of advertising. However, still being relatively new to the industry, I am going to be open-minded in my approach as I have more to learn and be exposed to.
Identity work for the hmm/ahh exhibition
Say you’re working for an agency and are given a corporate client who’s been in the press for, thinking about recent events, neglecting environmental sanctions, and the client’s looking to green-wash its image. How do you get around that?
Trick question! Professionally, I would put my best into whatever account I get put on. With my background and knowledge, I might be able to come up with a win-win solution and not produce something irresponsibly green-washed. And might even convince the client to take more action to become green beyond the cosmetics.
Looking back over your degree, and the stuff you’ve picked up along the way, do you have any advice for anyone considering a similar path? Are there things you know now you wish you’d known before you started?
My advice is simple: work as hard as you can and be the best you can be. And I also refer to the late Paul Arden's quote very often: “It is not how good you are, it is how good you want to be.”
I believe I have done as much as I can during my studies, though I wish I had possessed more confidence in myself and my portfolio earlier on in my degree, as I would have applied for more internships.
Film of DIY fans left for the benefit of hot Tube passengers
So we have an app. I'm a little late in mentioning it, here of all places, but fortunately lots of other people have been doing so.
Thanks to everyone who’s tweeted about the book so far. A special shout out to Patrick Hussey at Arts & Business, who went out of his way to help. There have also been tweets from Amelia’s Magazine, Design Week, Making Hay, Art at Heart and PD Smith, plus plenty others. Adele Mitchell pointed me at Surrey Life after downloading the app, so fingers crossed and plenty of gratitude from me for that.
Plus there’s been some more general web action. The first piece was my guest blog on Catherine Hawley’s Juxtabook. Then Aliya kindly pointed all the MNW-ers in my general direction. This was followed by a piece on Web Designer magazine’s blog, then cameThe Literary Platform’s Showcase and another guest spot, this time on design agency Mat Dolphin’s site. Last week fantasy maestro Mark Chadbourn flagged up The New Goodbye on his blog and yesterday also saw me take up some prime space on Me & My Big Mouth, the blog belonging to Scott Pack, publisher for The Friday Project.
Monday will see a post about the app on the Creative Review blog, and hopefully next week will bring some more coverage too. I also have a guest post to write for Sam Hayes when I get a spare moment or two. Something around the letter K.
Meanwhile I'm off work for a week and celebrating my daughter's second birthday.
Cat Lane is a photography student from the south of England with a passion for fashion. At the end of last year she entered a competition to become the cover model for The New Goodbye, which she won. As well as the cover, the app also includes a handful of her self-portraits.
Like many of the entrants for the Mila competition, you’re a photographer rather than a fashion model. With this in mind, why did you enter the contest in the first place?
The main reason was that I thought, if I won, it would be great to be part of a shoot like this and to get to see and experience first-hand all of the work that goes into a shoot of this kind. It was great to watch the process from beginning to end: from the hair, makeup and styling, to the set construction, and to the actual shooting of the image itself and the reviewing of the photographs afterwards. I've never worked with a creative team before so I found it especially fascinating to see how everybody works together to create the final picture.
You’re pretty active on Flickr, where you post a lot of your work. Do you think the network is a positive thing for serious photographers?
I believe networking is of huge importance these days and is also a fantastic way to get regular feedback on your work. And I find it incredibly inspiring as well, I love being able to see great new work from the people I follow every day and to be able to watch their work grow and develop.
One of Cat's self-portraits.
A lot of the work you did have on Flickr consists of self-portraiture. Would you say you’re inordinately vain?
Absolutely not. I think now, especially on Flickr, it's almost normal to take quite a lot of self-portraits. I see more and more people doing it now and I think that self-portraiture is a great way to improve. For me, self-portraiture helped me to gain confidence with my photography, and in the early days it helped me to become familiar with my camera much quicker and helped me to experiment as well. Self-portraiture also meant that I was able to shoot portraits whenever I liked without having to arrange anybody to model for me. I also find there is less pressure with self-portraits because if the pictures don't turn out how you wanted them to, it's not a problem.
Tell us about the shoot for The New Goodbye, being in front of the lens rather than behind it.
Although I shoot a lot of self-portraits, it still felt bizarre to be in front of the lens because it wasn't me shooting the pictures. The part I especially enjoyed was seeing how the whole team worked together with one image in mind to create the shot they wanted. And it was also lovely to have my hair and makeup done and be pampered a bit. Ha ha!
You’ve recently finished a photography course at the LondonCollege of Communications. Is this a route you would recommend to others interested in becoming professionally involved in photography?
I would say so, especially if you're self taught. I think being self-taught is great but for me it got to the point where I wanted to learn more. More than I could teach myself with the little equipment that I own, or that I could access. I have learnt so, so much on the course about different photographic equipment and techniques, and although I can't currently afford the equipment I've learnt to use yet, at least I'll know what to do with it pretty much right away when I buy it in the future! Another thing I found especially beneficial about the course was being able to socialise and meet with others with an equally strong interest in photography. I think being immersed in that sort of an atmosphere is especially inspiring.
I only dozed off for a minute. Now my head's stuck to this tree.
Now your course is at an end, what are the next steps for you?
Moving back home, learning to drive and just to continue working on my portfolio. Shooting more fashion editorial style work. I'd also like to look into getting work assisting other photographers also.
Rich Watson is a singer/songwriter with a line in melodic, sixties-tinged guitar pop. As well as contributing the title track to The New Goodbye, he has recently worked with Ford and The Times, and recorded with musical statesmen Mike Rutherford (Genesis, Mike & The Mechanics) and Kenney Jones (The Small Faces, The Faces, The Who). He is currently working with producer Tim Woods on Department 66, his debut album.
Rich playing The Albert Hall with Neil and Andy from Travis
You’ve been writing songs seriously for a number of years now. Recently you seem to have found a more distinctive voice. You’ve retained that sixties musicality you have always excelled in, but there’s a more modern feel to the music, that I think is very much a good thing. The New Goodbye is probably the first public demonstration of this, but is this a conscious move?
I have been writing fairly consistently since I was about 14, when I started my first band at school. I guess I've been refining and honing the sound that is gradually crystallizing into Department 66. Ultimately, the bottom line is to make something of quality with a strong melody, an interesting lyric and that is reflective of its time. A tall order, but that was the brief I gave myself when I started the project.
Tim [Woods. The producer] has been invaluable in bringing this to life and Avatar, another track we worked on together (before the arrival of the James Cameron film I hasten to add), is in a similar vein.
They’ve updated The Prisoner. Shame they didn’t give you a call for the soundtrack. Marriage made in heaven, I reckon.
Funnily enough I've just completed work on a new track for the album, entitled Just Around The Corner. It’s an instrumental piece, directly influenced by the likes of Lalo Schifrin. I’ve recently been turned on to his work, like the score he did for the Bullitt (the Steve McQueen film).
Can you tell us a bit about Department 66?
I’m planning it as an album of 10 songs. The writing kicked off with Avatar last year, and the album will of course include The New Goodbye. I'm halfway there now. Ultimately, I'm keen to have something that incorporates the full range of my writing. I've always loved albums like London Calling [The Clash] or The White Album [The Beatles] where each track effectively creates its own little world.
So individual concept songs, rather than a concept album. And the title? Where’s that from?
Department 66 is the road that crosses the border between France and Spain via Catalonia. I overhead the name on my travels last year and it struck me as an interesting title. I chose it for the sound of it, but also for the sense of transience it evokes; that place between borders.
That’s one of the themes of the novel too. It fact, it’s directly referenced, except in the book it’s the Mont Blanc pass between France and Italy.
You tasted a level of success a couple of years back when Six O’Clock was picked up by Ford (who, I have to confess I think helped murder a great song), and then there was the tour for Teenage Cancer Trust. But is that how you see yourself, as a front-man of a band?
I enjoyed both experiences very much and certainly performing at the Royal Albert Hall was a particular highlight. I guess the idea of fronting a band and performing my own songs has always appealed, as, like most musicians, I have a very clear, defined view of how my songs should be performed. That’s not to say I’m not interest in writing for other people.
Originally from the Midlands, Rich now lives in Kent and works in London. Department 66 should be with us sometime next year. If you’re interested in contacting him, drop him a line.
It may have escaped your notice that in March 2010 Anne Rice announced the launch of her inaugural ‘vook’, that’s a book with video; prose chapters interspersed with dramatisations. As a serious reader, I can’t help but think this sounds a bit rubbish. It puts me in mind of nothing more than the poorly-filmed video on the old Sega Mega CD games. Remember the pre-Scream sleepover girlies in peril? I think ‘vooks’ are a stupid idea. I’ve also little doubt they’ll probably prove hugely successful for bestselling commercial fiction.
But fortunately I think there’s more to Apple’s entry into the books market than ‘vooks’, eyestrain and competition for Amazon.
The home page of the McSweeney's app
E-readers like the Kindle offer an immersive experience in the written word that is surprisingly comparable to that of a printed book. If it weren’t they wouldn’t be selling in their millions. But for anyone who considers that a physical book—and not just the words between its covers—can be a work of art, there’s something a little dry and disappointing about them.
Despite the early sales, I doubt the iPad, without the benefit of e-ink, will earn the favour of the serious reader looking to supplement print with digital, but what Apple has in its touchscreenproducts is a possible alternative to bland e-readers for anyone who appreciates the craftsmanship that goes into a beautiful book.
The market for such a product has barely begun to be explored, and certainly the iPad, with its reasonable entry level pricing, will open up opportunities that have been limited by the diminutive screen-size of the Smartphone. Even with its current limitations, designers, publishers and developers have already made good use of the medium. Last year Enhanced Editions released a well-conceived version of Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro in association with Canongate Books, which featured a text-synched audio book, along with an exclusive score by Cave’s long-time collaborator Warren Ellis and footage of the charismatic but slightly sleazy author reading from the book.
Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro
Larger publishers are putting some effort in, but it’s all a bit wanting at the moment. Penguin seems content to produce more generic ‘enhanced’ versions (there are extra pictures) of some of its Classics series, and Faber is beginning to experiment too.
Save the recent impressive Alice app for the iPad by Atomic Antelope, perhaps the biggest literary app success to date has been Russell Quinn’s Small Chair for McSweeney’s (TIME named it one of its Top 10 apps of 2009). Quinn intelligently blended the spirit of McSweeney’s printed product and the furnishings (excuse the pun) of its popular website with a healthy respect for the ‘user language’ (i.e. the familiar functionality) of the iPhone itself.
Main novel page from The New Goodbye
Although they are few in number, such projects, added to impressive sales for the Stanza and Kindle apps, have proven that, given a sensible treatment, literature and digital can combine and produce something for us to savour. I should probably make clear that Quinn is also developing an app for me, so I’ll be putting my money* where my mouth is this May.
We should be encouraged. Despite the ‘vook’ concept beginning to take hold in America, digital doesn’t necessarily mean dumbing down. For proof of that beyond the examples I’ve already mentioned, just take a look at the V&A’s recent and highly successful Decode exhibition.
Whether book publishing is able to see the iPad as an opportunity in the same way that newspapers and magazines do is unlikely. Publishers may be able to play Amazon off against Apple for a while, but it’s doubtful whether Amazon and Apple will be willing to bow to publishers rather than the demands of their customers if new sources of quality fiction begin to materialise. Now that entry costs have been slashed and potential royalties increased, smaller, successful publishing ventures are likely to emerge from the indie presses where hobbyist publishers and frustrated authors have been treading water since the earliest days of the web.
A firm sense of direction seems to be eluding mainstream publishing and progress towards a consensus on how ebooks and printed books can co-exist is frustratingly slow, despite it being a hot topic of conversation.
Cue far-from-rocket-science prediction: I don’t necessarily think that book publishers’ reluctance to embrace ebooks is going to lead to a wave of self-publishing successes, but the major publishers who are resistant to digital may be outplayed by smaller companies during these early stages. No doubt many artistic trailblazers will be swallowed up by the bigger houses in time but, for now, well, book publishing lives in interesting times.
The recession has meant a lot of good, creative authors—many with several books already on the shelves—aren’t being published at the moment. I’m going to be so bold as to count myself among their number. But I for one am not going to hang around waiting for mainstream publishers to regain their sense of adventure and their long-term responsibility to authors. If they don’t want me, I’m going to beat them at their own game.
* There’s no money involved here. It’s just a figure of speech.
