One of Lisa's passions is photography. She was thrilled to have two of her photographs selected to be shown as part of this group show which ran throughout the Brighton Festival in May 09. She’s even more thrilled that’s some of her photographs have been selected to be included in a new photography book by Rotovision - can’t say more than that at this stage but watch this space!

Image top left - Lisa Garner (aka lissyloola)

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We love Brighton and think, for us, it's the best place to live in the UK. We love the energy, the variety, the culture, the attitude, the crazy mix of people, and of course the sea views. We even love the seagulls, even though we're a bit scared of them... have you seen the size of them??!

We can’t wait for it to be sunny again though, even the nicest of places are just that bit nicer when the sun shines.

Image - Lisa Garner

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Never ones to miss an opportunity, the Freaks battled the storm force gales on Brighton beach.

We made Picture Of The Week in The Argus!

What we said: “We are five Brighton photographers who discovered each other on Flickr. We have a similar outlook on the world and work as a collective to produce fun, irreverent and thought-provoking images. We'd had this picture planned for a while but had been waiting for the perfect weather (or a suitably powered leaf blower).”

Image - The Argus

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We absolutely love the work of Tom Gauld and it often makes us laugh. It's very clever too.

Illustration - Tom Gauld

See more of Tom Gauld's work

We first came across the work of Jim Smoth over 10 years ago when he worked for the first Puccino’s café in Kingston-upon-Thames. He’s worked for them ever since and we just love his sense of humour and slightly subversive attitude shown on his designs for everything from sugar sachets to cups to in-store graphics. Why have a sign that says “Sorry, we’re closed” when you can have one that says “Shut happens”? Genius.

Image - Jim Smith

See more of Jim Smith's work

As part of the Glorious Freaks photography collective Lisa belongs to she devised this shoot of strange creatures at Garage Studios in Brighton. A movie is planned for the new year so prepare youself for a lot of swooping.

96 bin bags, 120 metres of gaffer tape, 30 man hours and 5 freaks plus a guest appearance and a loan of a white studio from The Brownhorse (aka Adam Bronkhorst - photographer and co-owner of Garage Studios.)

See more Glorious Freaks' photos

We’ve just received delivery of this gorgeous screenprinted year planner. It’s making us look forward to the new year so we can put it on our wall... just Christmas and New Year to distract us until then..!

To get your mitts on your own year planner (£10 + postage and lovely brown paper packaging) visit crispinfinn.com

We like to treat ourselves each year to a spot of overseas culture and view it as our Christmas party. Last year was Dublin and this year was Florence. Choosing to go in January meant that there were no queues, even for the Uffizi so we were able to stuff ourselves full of Renaissance art and beautiful architecture (and delicious Italian food) for four days solid. We had a little bit of sunshine too, just a little bit. Lovely.

We’ve just booked this year’s trip; we're off to Budapest... woolly hats and thermal knickers packed already.

See more photos by Lisa Garner

Go and check out this fantastic photography exhibiton being shown at The Eagle in Brighton until 31st December:

Moonlighting “Alex Bamford’s photographs make familiar landscapes alien. Streaks of coloured light balls roll tumbleweed-like across seafronts and “fight” in forgotten corners. Against natural backdrops devoid of human presence, there’s a sense of otherworldliness, that the viewer is privy to something fleeting and magical.” Nione Meakin (from a review in The Argus, 11/12/09)

Image - Alex Bamford

See more of Alex's moonlighting photos

A recent photography day trip to London gave Lisa the chance to take more of her famous (well, amongst the Brighton Flickr community anyway at least...for now, hush hush) double exposures. Never one t go anywhere without her trust Lomo LC-A+ camera she couldn’t resist taking this image of St Paul’s Cathedral.

Image - Lisa Garner

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Every year Itonic go on a weekend away as an alternative to having a Christmas party. This is an image of the Hungarian Parliament building from our most recent trip to Budapest. It's another one of Lisa's double exposures... that's not a 'real' reflection but the same image overlaid over the first by taking two photos of the same scene with the second one taken upside down. You'll be able to read more about the technique in a forthcoming Rotovision book... watch this space!

See more double exposure photos

The South Coast Design Forum is launching a series of seminars for 2010 aimed at the professional media audience. The first event is called Bright Type and is a typographic evening covering the world of type and design with an emphasis on digital type. The keynote speaker is world renowned Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag with Richard Rutter from Clearleft as his supporting speaker.

It's taking place on 11th Feb at the Sallis Benney theatre. It should be an interesting evening, maybe we'll see you there?

How cool is this? It's a ceramic spray can of love by Carrie Reichardt aka The Baroness. On the reverse of the can it says "When the power of love overpowers the love of power the world will know peace." Better than a box of Milk Tray or a cheesy heart-clutching bear from Clintons eh?

See more of The Baroness' ceramics... you might have to think twice about serving Granny her cake from some of her plates but they're certainly an interesting way of getting a point across.

Brighton and Hove Chamber of Commerce are holding their AGM later this month on the 22nd at the Lansdowne Place Hotel. They've promised that it won't be boring and stuffy, phew.

The guest speaker is Michael Cowan, co-director of Spice Factory, a Brighton based independent film production company. There's dinner and drinks to be enjoyed and lots of time to meet new people.

Sounds like it will be a good night, why not join us and buy a ticket?

We're liking the Etsy website at the moment. It's a global source of handmade or vintage items, art and supplies and all things nice. You can buy and sell or sorts of things from bags and books to toys and tables.

It's great for treats for yourself or gifts, like these really cute notecards. They were hand printed on a vintage platen letterpress by luckybeepress. Have a look at their range.

SCDF (South Coast Design Forum) are organising an evening of Photography Talks, featuring some of Brighton's finest talent.

Emma Critchley will be talking about her underwater photograpy.

Kevin Meredith (lomokev) will be talking about the use of film.

Richard Rowland will be presenting a video project, Urban Fictions.

Helen Cadwallader will be talking about the Brighton Photo Biennial.

Garage Studios will talk about running a photographic studio.

Find out more and book here.

We've recently discovered TED. If you haven't checked it out, go and do it (although be prepared to lose a few hours.) It's a free online resource where you can watch talks given by all sorts of clever people on all sorts of fascinating topics such as design, business, science, life, the universe, and everything else.

We've particularly enjoyed this talk by graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister on the effect moments of happiness can have on good design. Watch the video.

As a personal project, Lisa has been dollerizing her friends. It's a made up word to represent turning people into dolls, in case you hadn't guessed and it's done by using her ninja Photoshop skills to manipulate the portraits she takes.

Apparently it's all about creating a childish vision of someone whilst retaining their adult character. It amuses her no end but is as freaky as hell and slightly scary for the rest of us. She's aiming to create a whole army of them, a very frightening thought. Brr.

See more here.

Originally set to run for the duration of the Brighton Festival, the run of this show has been extended until 13th June so you've still got time to go and experience it... and you definitely should!

It's a promenade theatre performance created by dreamthinkspeak set in the old Co-op on London Road. I can't tell you anything about it as part of the thrill is not knowing what's going to happen next. I can tell you it's brilliantly done though and in the words of The Independent "All I can say is that Before I Sleep is the most mesmerising, atmospheric, visually exquisite piece you are likely to see."

Book here.