Some really nice updates to see on Mark Howe’s photography site, with a great mix of styles and subjects.

This has been sitting in my inbox for a while (sorry Suzie) you might have seen Heart & Sold elsewhere but it is well worth a re-post, great identity, great work by the artists and all for a great cause, please support.

Ex-Wolff Olins duo Lukecharles have a great portfolio of varied work.

No Fly Posters is a interesting personal project from designer Jon Bland who works at Music. Intended to be a rolling project where creatives re-imagine the idea of No Fly Posters and their ideas are pasted on an abandoned building in Manchester.

Round 1 includes submissions from Jon Bland & Matt Keers from Music, Abby Hambleton from Creative Concern, Neal Fletcher from SB Studio, Ross Francis, Alex Green & James Somerfield.

Jon is open for ideas if you fancy getting involved in round 2 just drop him a line at email@noflyposters.com

Exciting news for the new year, the Leeds Print Festival is back.

Starting on the weekend of 18th of January there will be an opening party, print workshops and talks by Alan Kitching, Matthew The Horse and The Print Project, it will be a great weekend and you can get hold of bargain priced tickets here.

Still looking for nice, designery Xmas presents? Well look no more. ‘All Sorts’ is a limited edition letterpress book created by ‘gridula’ who is part of ‘The Print Project’ — a letterpress printing collective based in Bradford, West Yorkshire.

A sort in letterpress printing is an individual letter or character. ‘All Sorts’ is a pun on this. As each ‘Sort’ (or person) in the book is created out of lead or wooden sorts. Designed, set and printed by hand this is a lovely little book. You can get hold of it here.

Some fantastic, witty work by Oliver Maltby, there are plenty of projects you will have seen picking up awards and some hidden gems. Really great stuff , check out his website here.

After the success of Leeds Print Festival 2012 the team are opening the doors again for more inky fun on the 23rd and 24th of June. A great opportunity to come along, meet some nice people and learn some skills from some print experts. More information can be found on the website here.

D&AD North are hosting a talk by the legendary Erik Kessels in Manchester this Thursday (April 5th). It should be a fascinating talk by one of the industries true original thinkers. More info and ticket booking here.

There has been quite a few new projects added since I last checked in with Marc & Anna, they’ve done some nice work for Tent London and the British Heart foundation but these collar/keyrings for PR agency Man Bites Dog really made me smile.

Design agency Music in collaboration with Universal Music have joined up for a charity project in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust called Secret 7″. The aim of the project is to raise awareness and funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust through the exhibition and sale of 700 limited edition vinyls each housed in a one off, original sleeve designed by a vast array of designers, illustrators, celebrities, musicians and kids from the Teenage Cancer Trust. 7 current recording artists  have each pressed 100 limited edition  7″ vinyls of one of their own songs and it’s these songs which will be the inspiration for the sleeve art.

Part of the project was to hold a competition through online marketing agency Talenthouse, where 1000′s of people submitted sleeve designs for 1 or more of the 7 tracks.  50 designs for each track were picked from all the entries by the artist themselves and the chosen designs will be on display and for sale at the exhibition. The remaining 50 sleeves for each track are being designed by the likes of Mr Bingo, Ben Lamb, Si Scott, Deanna Halsall, Pete Fowler, Jody Barton, Jeffery Bowman, Inky, Johanna Basford, Shaw & Shaw and various artists from Hadsome Frank Illustration, CIA, Heart Illustration to name but a few.

The total of 700 sleeves will be displayed in an exhibition at the Idea Generation Gallery in Shoreditch over Record Store Day and sold to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust. A great project for a great cause find out more and get involved here

Got hold of a copy of the second edition of Craig Oldham’s Handwritten Letter Project book and was surpised to find a fantastic handwritten lettter back to me inside the cover, the book itself is beautiful with contributions from some amazing designers and is well worth a purchase to support some great causes. More info here.

Love this book Mike and the guys at Interbrand have created for the retoucher Steve Bland AKA The Great Blandini. It is all based around 10 photoshop tricks Steve uses. The book itself is all hand drawn ( yes even the body copy). Credit also goes to Jefton Sungkar and Mike Reed.  See more details on Mikes site here

Craig Oldham has been in touch to let us know that his fantastic handwritten letter project book has been reprinted with extra contributions from loads of great designers and studios, there is also a rather beautiful looking limited edition slipcase version which comes with the bonus of being inscribed by the great man himself. As before a percentage of proceeds from this book will be donated to the National Literacy Trust and will also support D&AD. Great causes and a great idea so dig deep and buy one or two. More information here.

This looks like a great event to brighten up January. Leeds Gallery is hosting a series of workshops, talks and events all celebrating the wonderful world of print, already confirmed are Anthony Burrill, Si Scott and Generation Press. Should be a great event, more info and ticket details here.