professional Claire Boston professional Claire Boston

red, white and blue

Here's a quick peek at Whitney and Marc's save the dates for their wedding next year. Marc is from Luxembourg, Whitney is from the US. They are getting married on Independence Day, so wanted a red, white and blue theme, but also wanted to reference the two countries uniting. I stumbled across a gorgeous old stamp from the 1960's and adapted the lion to be marching along with a simplified american flag.

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for bella
personal Claire Boston personal Claire Boston

for bella

My mum just turned 65. You wouldn't know it though, she rushes around like a mad woman and has a better social life than I do. She's still going to keep working for now, but she'll cut down on her days a bit, and play a bit more golf. And despite never needing to take it, she's quite excited about the prospect of free public transport.

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as the day breaks and shadows flee away
opinion, personal Claire Boston opinion, personal Claire Boston

as the day breaks and shadows flee away

It's been 17 years since I first learned In Flanders Fields by heart. A chorus of 13 year old girls dutifully reciting; children who had never known war or conflict, who were far more concerned with gossiping about boys than the stories of a war long past. But here I am so many years later, on a different continent, at the place it all happened. 
And unexpectedly, I am in tears. It starts with Atatürk's message. 

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up, up and away
opinion, personal Claire Boston opinion, personal Claire Boston

up, up and away

Göreme at 6am is still. There's a slight chill, but no wind. The light filters through the sky, inky black softening around us as we stand on the roof of our hotel. At first you can just make out a few of the little clusters, black rounded shadows, dotted around the the outskirts of the town. But then as your eyes adjust to the light, you see more groups surrounding the town and out into the distance. Now and then, you see a burst of colour, a glow in the darkness as one of them is filled with burning gas.

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light and dark
personal Claire Boston personal Claire Boston

light and dark

I saw an image on Pinterest a few weeks back, and liked the shadows as type effect so today I had a bash at making a few of my own. It was a bit of a brain exercise to get the text orientation right, more than I can really be dealing with while slightly hungover. Cutting in a straight line was difficult enough.

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breakfast
personal Claire Boston personal Claire Boston

breakfast

I've recently moved out of cacophony that is Brixton, and to the leafy suburbs of Surrey. I've swapped the 24 access to dubious fried chicken and easy of the Victoria line commute for a quiet flat nestled on a lake that is home to some friendly and inquisitive ducks.

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hello beautiful (but only if you're thin)
opinion Claire Boston opinion Claire Boston

hello beautiful (but only if you're thin)

So yesterday I popped into Selfridges and saw their #beautyproject campaign. I'd seen it before a week or so earlier, but this time I paid a bit more attention. And it annoyed me. These people are all ravishing. Yeah sure, they are a bit alternative, they have quirky haircuts or tattoos, or don't fit into the 16-25 age range of most models. However not one of them looks remotely curvy. 

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death by stock images
opinion Claire Boston opinion Claire Boston

death by stock images

The modern day designer phenomena. You can almost hear the despair. There are few things more mind numbing and soul destroying than trawling stock image sites looking for something, anything that might work. What most of these sites need is a 'no crap' filter. Or just a ban on anything with arrows, silhouetted men in suits pointing, ladders, three-dimensional bar charts, handshakes. You get the picture.

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colours of israel
professional Claire Boston professional Claire Boston

colours of israel

Well hello there, first blog post of the new site. Now if only I had anything interesting to say.  This is going to be more of a personal project I think, I don't expect anyone to actually read my ravings, but it's nice to have a place to catalog design-related thoughts and not bore distant relatives on Facebook.

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