At the weekend after my friends and I had a very late brunch in Manchester I dragged them to the rather fantastic Urbis building to check out an exhibition called ‘How Manga Took Over the World’, which, as you’d imagine, was all about how Japanese graphic design style has influenced us in the West. I know purists will probably be a bit annoyed they called it ‘Manga’ rather than ‘anime’, but I let it slide since they probably just wanted it to sound more accessible. I only persuaded two of my friends to join me inside (the rest waited in the little park outside) despite it being a free exhibition, in fact, all the exhibitions at the Urbis are free. I don’t actually know much about anime, but I do know that I like the work of Terratag, Tado and Jon Burgerman, and those guys were represented in abundance, as well as several other artists that I recognised but can’t remember off the top of my head. The exhibition isn’t actually that big, I got around it in about 20 minutes, though I was rushing and not reading the explanations since I didn’t like to keep my friends waiting indulging my own interests whilst they drank medicinal Starbucks to alleviate the effects of the previous nights drinking. If you’re in Manchester city centre for any reason over the next few months (the exhibition runs until September 27th) then I highly recommend checking it out.

Click on through for a load of pictures (mostly shot from the hip since I was unsure of the photo policy).

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Tags » anime • art • exclusives • exhbition • japan • jon burgerman • manchester • manga • T-shirts • tado • terratag

Straight off the bat, let’s be clear that this design is available for both guys and girls. As the following picture will attest.

Butterflies seem to be a staple of design in the independent t-shirt world, yet I can’t remember the last time that I mentioned one. Manchester-based Origin68 have released this great butterfly-based tee though, which reminds me that using a feminine image (butterflies ain’t exactly the most manly of symbols) doesn’t necessarily have to result in a tee that’s just for the ladies.

On the product page they’ve included one of Wordsworth’s most famous poems, the one about daffodil’s, which he wrote (or was at least inspired to write) when walking near one of my favourite bodies of water in the Lake District, Ullswater. I don’t really know why its there, but its always nice to see.

Costiness=£19 Link

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Tags » ash • butterfly • grey • manchester • origin68 • UK

Andy: “Ummmm, why have you put those badges into takeaway cartons?”YCMIH: “One day we were making our onion-design badges and we noticed that they were… y’know, onion… badges…“(Queue bemused look from the devilishly handsome blogger)

Andy: “……..”

YCMIH: “Onion Bhajis!”

Andy: “Ahhhhh! Now I get it”

And with that, I was thoroughly smitten with the ladies behind You Can Make It Happen, a small Manchester-based company set up by Jo Finlay in 2003. There was a fantastic quirky-Britishness about them, their designs, and entire brand philosophy that was really endearing. The often doodle-like hand drawn illustration style is a staple of their (usually food-inspired) designs, something which goes hand-in-hand with the hand-printed, limited edition nature of all their pieces.

Fittingly, considering the food-theme that seems to run through their range, YCMIH are getting healthy and eating their greens. That rather strained metaphor (analogy?) means that they’re sourcing all their products from manufacturers that employ fair, ethically and environmentally conscious working practices.

They had quite a few products at Margin that I can’t spot on their typically whimsical, hand drawn website, such as a new ‘eat your greens’ range, and a guilt-free eco-bag, a product that is really big in the UK at the moment, so it might be a case of it taking a while for them to get to the site, but it’s entirely possible that they’ll have the latest stuff at Manchester’s Fashion Market every Saturday 10am-5pm on Tib Street (near Debenhams, if you know Manc. you’ll probably know where that is).

You Can Make It Happen

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Tags » food • manchester • margin • margin2008 • T-shirts • YCMIH

Me&Yu, the Manchester-based fashion label that has a store in the delightfully bizarre Affleck’s Palace, released their Sping/Summer range fairly recently, and they encouraged me to check it out. Being a fan of all things Me&Yu, and most things Mancunian, check it out I did.

They’ve continued along the same theme of doing fairly weird things in a hand drawn style and having equally weird photoshoots (bigger product pics would be nice on detailed artwork though). I really like the green and grey colourway of this monster doodle hoodie (the pullover version), and I really like prints on hood linings as is shown in the zip-up version, and I get the feeling that I’d like the drawings too, but its a bit hard to make them out. Still, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that this is a cool design.

Costiness=£40/50 Links: Pullover/Zipper

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Tags » doodle • green • grey • hand drawn • hoodie • manchester • me&yu • monster • UK