Yesterday was the most polluted day on record in Australia and trust Sydney to be in the thick of it Thursday, Sep 24 2009 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and malcolm enright , malcolmenright 10:42 am

Allan Duncan sent this shot of Sydney. In Brisbane, the sun at 2:00pm was blue through the dust haze, and as it reflected on vehicle windscreens it was most eerie vignetted blue–purple. The Australian this morning has all the info re: parts & particles (micrograms per cubic meter) here.

So last night I got out our trusty apartment odorator (from c1840 below) in the hope of spreading millions of small perfume particles into our part of the world – and it worked, today is as clear as . . . the day before.

Also one of our trusted furniture restorers – Stuart Bywater sent this email just now with some good advice:

“Good Morning Dust Storm Survivors”… Today everything is covered in dust even inside the house, your furniture will have a thin film of dust over every horizontal surface. Please be careful when going to clean these surfaces ! They will scratch if not careful If you follow our CARE PROGRAMME, your furniture will look great again in minutes! CLEANING . . . When dusting and cleaning use a slightly damp cloth along the length of the grain; this will pick up the dust and not spread it. Then dry along the grain. Clean up spillages, especially alcohol ASAP Then apply a thin coat of wax or oil, we recommend Feed and Wax or Orange Oil. *These wonderful products and more, can be purchased from our shop; Lace and Bark, 18 Station Street, Nundah, Brisbane. Phone 3266 1000.

Good Morning Dust Storm Survivors… Today everything is covered in dust even inside the house, your furniture will have a thin film of dust over every horizontal surface. Please be careful when going to clean these surfaces ! They will scratch if not careful If you follow our CARE PROGRAMME, your furniture will look great again in minutes!
CLEANING When dusting and cleaning use a slightly damp cloth along the length of the grain;-this will pick up the dust and not spread it.
Then dry along the grain. Clean up spillages, especially alcohol ASAP Then apply a thin coat of wax or oil we recommend Feed and Wax or Orange Oil. *These wonderful products and more, can be purchased from our shop;
Lace and Bark 18 Station st Nundah   PH; 3266 100Good Morning Dust Storm Survivors… Today everything is covered in dust even inside the house, your furniture will have a thin film of dust over every horizontal surface. Please be careful when going to clean these surfaces ! They will scratch if not careful If you follow our CARE PROGRAMME, your furniture will look great again in minutes!CLEANING When dusting and cleaning use a slightly damp cloth along the length of the grain;-this will pick up the dust and not spread it.Then dry along the grain. Clean up spillages, especially alcohol ASAP Then apply a thin coat of wax or oil we recommend Feed and Wax or Orange Oil. *These wonderful products and more, can be purchased from our shop;Lace and Bark 18 Station st Nundah   PH; 3266 1000

 

The text message from Lil and Luke said “Dad and Barb! we are off to have 30 days in the sun – in Spain” Friday, Jul 24 2009 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and malcolm enright and urban archaeology , , , malcolmenright 12:15 pm

while the picture shows an all-together-different side . . . no helmets, one hand on the wheel, the driver isn’t even looking where she is going! Every parent’s nightmare. The image above is one of thirty or so that drop into my email account daily from a New York designer – Eric Baker who runs a strategy and design agency, recently renamed to THE  O GROUP. Eric spends his off-peak hours trawling blogs for interesting visual ephemera and graphic delights and sends around 10 Mb’s worth out to his world, daily. I dropped Peter Tyndall into Eric’s world and Peter calls his emails “Baker’s Delights” – so apt and so much fun. Check out Eric’s business web, the link is live above.

 

Some of the 1960’s Brisbane design that surfaced at my 60th birthday party Tuesday, Jul 14 2009 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and malcolm enright and urban archaeology , , malcolmenright 10:52 am

The venue for my party – Simpatico is owned by Mitch Thompson, we go right back to the days of social revolution in this once sleepy town. I did this logo for the shop Mitch ran with David Guthrie and Brian Laver in the Brisbane Arcade. It was a real blast to see Mitch and David at my party.

My (fairy) – God Mother, Ada aka Michael Ashley was asked to speak at my party but she flew-the-coup. Just as well because she knows more dirt than all the other speakers combined, what she did do was bundle up a care-pack with photos, cards and a message straight from the swinging 60’s. (it arrived in the post). For those who joined us and reminisced about early adult exploits, here are the visual reminders – The first Red Orb card – A Red Orb pass out –  Card from de Brazils – Tony Robinson’s Playboy Club – Card from Willi’s Bazzar – Card from Hair that I designed – two flyers for bands we followed (The Purple Hearts & Thursday’s Children) – Holly Go Lightly’s Travelling Card.

 

It’s yer birthday, it’s a milestone – so take the day off, says my Father . . . Monday, Jul 6 2009 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and barbara heath and malcolm enright and urban archaeology , , , malcolmenright 11:50 am

So, the first day of my 60th year starts well. Emails, phone calls, presents and a slow breakfast hasseled by the cat & the dog (they know somethings up, we didn’t get up and go straight over the hill for exercise and straight down to work). Barbara and Lil have planned a 60th celebration for me tomorrow night, exactly 100 rsvp’s received with 36 well wishers either overseas or dispersed in other States and 21 rsvp’d with other scheduled events.

The invite was printed by Tom Lusch at Platypus Graphics as a gesture of thanks for all the print jobs passed his way in my lifetime. I started with a collage of portraits leading to the big six-oh but in the end I opted for simplicity – in design its mostly the stuff you leave out that shouts the loudest . . . and this was confirmed with the overwhelming positive response to the invite. We all look forward to an interesting evening and tomorrow night’s full lunar blessing, my friend and art patron Crow Hurst is supplying and pouring his New Zealand premium wine brands in his lead-free crystal also – our cups runneth over!

The x5 page downloadable .pdf has been updated three times already, it names all the people responsible - here.

The movie is made from two sets of pics supplied by Lil and Steven Thompson, George T has some also but not represented. The Dusty Springfield track is a favourite, the movie is a 12.2Mb download – here.

Eleven people used the invite image to stunning use, David Darling went even further with his card below:

 

Friends are selling The Chestnuts, an 1885 landmark house in Ipswich. I spent two days last week working up all the photographs, doing the A4 front & back brochure + the large illustrated sales sign Monday, Mar 23 2009 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and barbara heath and malcolm enright , , malcolmenright 4:10 pm

I first visited this house in the early 1970s, I worked every weekend for an antique dealer friend of our family – Mr Harcourt Howard. Betty Clarke was a regular visitor and buyer at Harcourt’s home at Denham Street Clayfield, a school teacher, a spirited bower bird who invited me up to Denmark Hill early on in our friendship. Chestnuts was her and Ashley’s “doll’s house” as I remember it – they lived there in small arched rooms completely crammed to the roof, verandahs over-flowing and a kitchen so filled with colonial objects that each week’s shopping, I guessed would never fit.

Allan & Linda had previously make restorations to the building for Ash & Bette and had first option to purchase. Here’s a bullet-point list of features: - Triple brick ground floor walls, with double brick upper – Extensive use of flame and fiddleback Queensland red cedar – Antique cast iron spiral stairway – English antique high level W. C. suite with calico interior to pan & stoneware fluted hand basin to powder room – Antique W. C. suite, claw foot bath & marble floor to bathroom - Marble floor & walls to ensuite – English imported wallpapers – English styled panelled conservatory – Eat in kitchen with restored Aga stove, walls marble; French provincial style – Floor marble & terracotta – Fire place to master bedroom – Polished cedar cutstring staircase to full height attic rooms with gothic windows – Reverse cycle air conditioning to lounge & bedroom – Secure front verandah with cast iron panels & lattice – Rear verandah with cast iron posts & panels with views across Ipswich to Brisbane – Detatched laundry & sewing room - Detatched garage with remote controlled door –  Monitored back to base security system – Exterior security lighting – Iron security grills to all accessable windows – Hard wired synchronised smoke detectors to all levels - Sandstone summer house with slate roof nestled in two metre high rear walled garden – Timber pitched roof potting & gardeners shed – Terraced front gardens landscaped with sandstone paving and retaining walls - Victorian terracotta garden edge tiles bought the house and added wings . . .

Barbara and I also selected The Chestnuts as one of the two Ipswich Houses for our recent commissioned sculpture for the Ipswich Art Gallery, so we already had a great connection to the place when the Coopers asked me to do the marketing & design work with them. Here’s a small A4 .pdf of the brochure and the house can be viewed on the web – here.

 

Creative partnership of Jim Deane & Malcolm Enright aired again after 28 years – the 4mmm/fm104 radio station ID design Wednesday, Sep 3 2008 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and malcolm enright , malcolmenright 5:54 pm

This is a bit of a blast from the past (in more ways than one) – twelve days back, was the 28th anniversary of the first broadcast of Radio Station Fm104 (4MMM). That’s the day AM died and FM was launched in Brisbane. The station’s current content co-ordinator, a savvy young guy called Mikey Oliver managed to track me down via Anne Jones at ToadShow . . . Mikey was looking for archival stuff from the period, particularly our second logo. Yes, I still have all my originals stashed away and yes, my memory still serves me well! I mentioned the date and time in a spread-email late on the friday but Mikey’s link didn’t drop in via email until the following week. The link to the site is here.

The editorial says ‘the logos that didn’t make it’ but in fact I gave them the original drawings of the first pitch campaign that did in fact get Jim Deane and I (& Schofield Sherbon Baker) the business.

Mikey took all the layouts for the Peter Shannon station ID research boards as well as designs for 24 sheet posters and rate cards. These have been scanned and I’m happy the station has them to add to their historical data. The first launch TVC we did is also on the web. The next pencil drawing was the second ‘rev up your radio’ idea that borrowed on an idea from a favourite NYC illustrator – Seymour Chawst.

And finally my original idea and reved-up radio drawing and the first version of the handwritten logo idea.

 

Other Passions – The Australian Financial Review Magazine, March 31 2006, thanks to Jan Howlin & Anthony Browell. Friday, Mar 31 2006 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence and malcolm enright and urban archaeology barbaraheath 11:45 am

OTHER PASSIONS – STORY BY JAN HOWLIN – PHOTOGRAPH BY ANTHONY BROWELL

MALCOLM ENRIGHT
Communications and graphic designer

The house Mal Enright shares with his jeweller wife Barbara Heath in suburban Brisbane is a classic Queenslander with a difference. Its contents testify to the full-blown collection addiction that has underpinned Enright’s life, and equally, to his artist’s eye. The focus of his latest fascination is antique clocks, which are displayed in and around the glass cabinets, antique furniture, decorative arts and collections of memorabilia that rise from cedar floor to ceiling, in room after room. Patina abounds: old timbers glow, gilt and mirror reflect and magnify; and Enright enthusiastically describes even minor details with an extensive knowledge of their history and provenance.
Basically, I knew I wanted to be a designer by about ten, he says. But by 11 he had started working with a dealer and came into contact with things antique. I worked for him until I was 29, and by that stage I’d had numerous collections. I loved all of the early kitchenalia. I loved depression-ware furniture, particularly anything that was hand-made by an Australian. Over the years I’ve amassed marketing material, advertising, package design, printed ephemera and trade-cards. Explaining what it is to be a collector, he says, It’s this mania! It’s something that’s inherent in you. This collecting thing is in my stars. It’s in all of my experience, and it’s fun!
When I started making real money I collected and curated contemporary art. I did that for 30 years, then I sold it in one big pop. I had $70,000 left over from the auction and I thought, well, the one thing that I’ve always wanted to get involved with is the engineering side of horology. So I then absolutely immersed myself in the category by reading every single thing I could get on clocks, and in almost five years I’ve managed to collect something like 116 clocks. At the outset Enright had three clocks he wanted to learn about. He contacted the local branch of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) and despite introducing himself by saying, Look I’m not a club person, I’m a boundary rider, mate, he became a member. He took his 1722 English lantern clock to the Clock Club’s most respected repairer, Clockman – a Mr Paul Jones, who dismantled it, repaired it, and taught Enright how to put it back together. I ended up doing bushings, learning the lathe, he says, and that’s what seduced me into getting under the bonnet of clocks. Through Jones Enright developed an understanding of the various English, French, German and American clocks. I started really getting to know drum movements. I moved from restoration of casework and movements to doing complete restorations of bronze work, dial work. In horology any damage to the dial of a clock is a disgrace, he says. Initially he painstakingly reinstated the worn numerals and type by hand with a fine sable-hair brush. Later he began recreating identical typography as computer art and silk-screening it over the original.
I then started buying every key clock that Clockman had, because he had really pristine excellent things, says Enright, including a 1763 Will Snow 30-hour country long-case clock. I spent probably 14 months finding out everything I could about Padside makers from Yorkshire before I was allowed to spend $10,000 to buy the clock!
I astound my wife with the amount of [investigation] I do. I don’t watch television. I’m just reading on horology. I’m a member of three different clock fraternities, internet-wise. You [find] information that doesn’t exist out there in print is exchanged openly through a friendship of people that you’d never ever think to meet. So I now have relationships with horologists all round the world.
I do have a wish list for completing a clock collection but most clocks are only shared within a select little group of collectors. And to break into these things is a lifetime’s work that’s the rest of my lifetime’s work.

 

Master Graphic for VRT Systems Thursday, Oct 17 2002 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence malcolmenright 1:14 am

Interesting corporate repositioning exercise was passed on to me by Michael O’Brien, my friend and NYC illustrator – Rick Meyerowitz and I worked at a visual disclosure -  a graphic device that looked at the VRT enterprise from the inside out. As most jobs these days end up in more training than production, the client took the reins of this material. While I would have done some things differently – it remains a great success for all stakeholders.

 

my first .gif animation Friday, Feb 2 1996 

Blogroll and arresting human intelligence malcolmenright 1:12 pm

Many people have sent emails but only (1) comment regarding this work. A Spanish designer sent me this link, he got it!