I was out in Hong Kong last week meeting up with Louis and the Luma crew out there. Whilst there I managed to see some of the factories where the bikes and apparel are made and of course a visit to the new concept store which has just opened in Central. Awesome!

I can now say that I look forward to bringing the brand to these shores and opening a concept store in London. Watch this space!

The new McFaulStudio…the virtual one…is all about introducing new talent and me working with who I consider to be the best in the business. Each time I have this pleasure I’ll be introducing you to them. In this instance I want to tell you about someone very special. Mark Howe is an Illustrator, and designer and a photographer…and he’s bloody fantastic at all of it. I commissioned him as a photographer earlier in the week for a book cover I’m doing and off he went last night and pulled something quite astonishingly fantastic out of the bag. He is already my photographer of choice for Vintage TV but I think I’ve found someone special behind a lense.

http://markhowephoto.co.uk/

Only 61 days, 13 hours and 00 minutes until the channel launches!!!

LOTS to do!

Vintage TV VIP website

Anyway, to dispel the rumours of me going completely mad I think I’d better explain what I’m up to and what the plans for this place are. I chose, last year, to promote John McFaul as an Art Director and Creative Consultant, as essentially, amongst a myriad of other things, that is what I had been doing running McFaulStudio. Since September 2009 I have been working with a new TV channel called Vintage TV about to launch on September 1st on Sky and Freesat platforms. As Brand Director and Consultant I am overseeing the brand across all media - print, web and of course broadcast working closely with ex McFaulStudio genius Chris Malbon. A TV channel, a brand, website (hub) and a huge opportunity for it to be all the things I hope it to be. I don’t think I’d be stepping out of line by saying that this will be cult in no time. Really! The media briefing happened last week and now the story is dissipating everywhere quickly.

Thats half my week - the other is with something else very special which I’m in no position to talk about right now but those of you who know me will understand how passionate I am about what is in the pipeline. A week in Hong Kong from Sunday will confirm whether I’ll putting my all into it so watch this space. Yes - bicycles obviously come into it somewhere! The day had to come!

So - where is the Illustration work you ask? The animation? The customization? The everything else? Where is McFaulStudio??? Well, McFaulStudio will continue to create images and design work. No animation or web stuff per se though. Those days are gone. No - McFaulStudio is a simple affair these days…wonderful imagery and design. Smaller commissions too - stuff McFaulStudio, when it was stomping around all cumbersome and that, couldn’t touch for a long time. In come the lovely book covers and magazine spreads - how I made my name all those years ago. So - thats McFaulStudio - still going but in a slightly different direction. No more to the ‘one-stop-hot-shop’. More refined and particular.

Something which is about to land with a thud is the Octobag with ThisisaLimitedEdition. McFaulStudio’s first object with them. Darren showed me some pre-production samples yesterday and they look great. The production will have some tweaks (logo’s and green stitching gone) but they are going to be hot. Big thanks to Ollie Munden on this - a real labour of love. I miss you fella!

Fans of World, and more particularly Hong Kong cinema, will recognize that is a certain Sammo Hung…and he’s standing in front of the Luma stand at a charity event and look - our designs are all over it!! I’m out in Hong Kong in July to talk about the McFaulStudio x Luma x 2xanadu partnership and the opening of the concept-store amongst other interesting developments.

There is a path I want to go down creatively.

This was then…not now.

I’ve been here before. I suppose, for my sins, I helped define this look many many years back.

It’s still nice to do it though…and today I had fun.

Then is still now…but better.

Old Skool Creative Jazz!

There will be much more of this in the coming months as I help take Vintage TV to broadcast and beyond. Watch this space!