London is just so exciting. It's completely transformed from the city I knew as a teenager. Teeming with colour, creativity, variety and life, its energy is infectious. Twenty or thirty years ago, I couldn't see why Johnson said, 'when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford'. Now, it simply seems true.
Eboy has a new poster celebrating the capital. I bought it. It's nearly 3 foot by 4. I just need to find some … wallspace.
Eboy joins forces with Paul Smith to create a very special version of London, previewed not in London, but in Tokyo, at Designer's Block. The cityscape will be used throughout Paul Smith’s Spring/Summer 2005 collections. Eboy previously collaborated with Paul Smith at the Milan furniture fair in April of this year to design a concept restaurant.
Based in Berlin and New York, Eboy was founded in 1998 by Steffen Sauerteig, Svend Smital, Kai Vermehr and Peter Stemmler. This Eboy ‘graphics band’ have committed themselves to high end pixel art and take their inspiration from pop culture, shopping, toys and computer games.
"I discovered Eboy's work and went to visit them at their studio in Berlin. I was delighted that they agreed to work on an exclusive project for us. This is their first and only collaboration where their work is used on fabric and clothes. The 'London Cityscape' is amazing and you can find it throughout the collection, from a large holdall, a women’s t-shirt, to the shoe lining on a pair of trainers!”
Paul Smith embraces the digital world with a pixel designed image of London. Famous landmarks: Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus, 10 Downing Street and the Millennium Wheel sprawl across a scene which highlights iconic double Decker buses, black cabs and red post boxes. The bustling metropolis has a mischievous edge with astronauts, green dinosaurs, cowboys, rock bands and the Eboy team dancing outside the Floral Street shop. Magmabooks
Belatedly, I'm about to start on Ackroyd's London: The Biography. On another occasion, Johnson also said: 'if you wish to have a just notion of the magnitude of this city, you must not be satisfied with seeing its great streets and squares, but must survey the innumerable little lanes and courts. It is not in the showy evolutions of buildings, but in the multiplicity of human habitations which are crowded together, that the wonderful immensity of London consists'. Footwork and Ackroyd lie ahead.
