Artist Books and the Fruit Sticker Album
In 2002 I was living and working in London, my weekly schedule combined teaching, designing and scenic arts:
- Monday: London College of Printing – visiting lecturer teaching graphic design / typography.
- Tuesday, Wednesday: Freelance graphic design – exhibition graphics, way-finding, annual reports, branding etc.
- Thursday, Friday (and sometimes even Saturday): BBC studios (White City) – manufacturing props, scenery and signage for a wide range of TV programmes.
The freelance design work took place in a shared studio at Ilife Yard (Kennington) part of the wider Pullens Yard complex (Clements Yard, Ilfee Yard & Peacock Yard). Pullens Yards were originally purpose-built spaces for designer-makers dating from the late 1880s. The studios have accommodated craftspeople, for over a hundred and twenty years, unsurprisingly, over this time, what most of the crafts-people produce has greatly evolved. Once the yards accommodated lace production, cabinetry and even fan makers, today these disciplines been replaced by filmmakers, jewellers and potters! A few crafts have remained throughout, furniture designers and letterpress printers are here now, just as they were in the rein of Queen Victoria.
Each year Pullens Yards celebrates a week of ‘Open Studios’ (Just before Christmas) – inviting the public in, to see what was going on behind the doors of each of the studio spaces. Our studio displayed architectural models, illustration work and at the time I thought it would be a good idea to make a small edition of artist books specially for the event. The Fruit Sticker Album was one of these! As with each year’s ‘Open Studio’ event, it was busy, and for some reason a large number of people though a Fruit Sticker Album would be a valuable Christmas gift – so much so, that I had to work very late each evening to manufacture more stock for the following day!
The initial design was manufactured by hand with a purple cover – the title was rubber stamped with the pages, printed, folded by hand, collated and stapled in place. Inside the cover was a page made from tissue, resembling the material often found protectively packaging satsumas and oranges – the remaining pages were printed in a grey recycled stock. These details has been the same since the first production of the Fruit Sticker Album.
I have been printing and publishing the Fruit Sticker Album every year since – now over twenty years. They are the same design, apart from some new cover colours and produced in slightly larger editions of 500, numbered, packaged and posted by hand.
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Where can I buy a Fruit Sticker Album?
If you would like to purchase one of my Fruit Sticker Albums my on-line web shop can be found at the following address: https://carlmiddleton.bigcartel.com/product/fruit-sticker-album
They are also available in my Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/765000538/
And in my Ebay account at: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115689824911
Or if you are in London or Düsseldorf and wish to purchase one in person you can buy one directly from Choosing Keeping or Kami – they are the only stockists world-wide! For some reason, Choosing Keeping only stocks Fruit Sticker Albums with green covers (perhaps this is because Jarvis Cocker owns a green and has made them fashionable) whereas Kami stocks the complete range: Green, Orange, Lemon and Plum.
Choosing Keeping – 21 Tower Street, London, United Kingdom WC2H 9NS https://choosingkeeping.com/
Kami – Steinstrasse 35, 40210 Düsseldorf, Germany https://www.tiktok.com/@littletokyoduesseldorf/video/7366247829217611041
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The Fruit Sticker Album is designed to store the wonderful range of fruit stickers whilst encouraging owners to competitively eat healthily. Each Fruit Sticker has twenty pages with enough space to store three-hundred fruit stickers. There are no rules for how you order you collection…
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Fruit Sticker Album – Concept, Design and Manufacture © Carl Middleton since 2002.
Please note: each Fruit sticker Album is supplied empty – purchasers have to do all the healthy eating and collecting.
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#fruitstickeralbum #carlmiddleton #studiob
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© Carl Middleton – July 2024.
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