News Archives - Labour of love

The news according to labour of love:

Oh Reilly

Some sweet illustrizzles of the LOLxCW collection

Incoming Labour of Love Camille Walala

The new LOL x Walala print collection’s landing soon.

LOL Meets Hanna Konola

Find out a little more about this seasons illustrator.

For the latest installment of our feature ‘a sporadic snoop around interesting folks homes and workplaces and a little bit of an interview’ (which we renamed ‘LOL Meets’ - mainly so we can reuse the name should we ever open a butchers shop) we thought it fitting to feature Miss Hanna Konola who created our print for this season. Hanna lives and works in Finland and has worked across a variety of objects and media. Our resident print and artwork spotter found her online a year or so ago and thought she’d be a good collaborator - which turned out to be true. It was a bit too far to send the usual camera elf to get pics so Hanna kindly supplied a few and gave us a little insight into what she does. For more info you can find Miss Konola’s site here.

LOL: So, Hanna, what are you working on at the moment?

HK: The biggest project I’m working on at the moment is my first children’s book that will be published by Etana Editions in spring 2016! I’m also busy with all the Christmas markets here in Helsinki.

LOL: You describe yourself as both a graphic designer and artist. How do you see these two disciplines crossing over in your work?

HK: I describe myself as a designer and artist and illustrator and often my work is a combination of these three. I studied graphic design and in Finland that study program includes illustration studies as well. I’ve never really seen myself as a graphic designer but it still plays some part in how I approach things and I feel that I’ve benefited from studying a bit of a broader field.

LOL: I get a sense of space, tranquility and order from your work. How much would you say your surroundings influence your work?

HK: I’m happy to hear you get that feeling from my work. It’s difficult to say how much the surroundings influence my work, since I mostly work here in Helsinki and don’t have a comparison.

LOL: Can you describe your work space and its setting?

HK: I work in a studio space I share with three friends, Leena Kisonen, Marika Maijala and Wensi Zhai. We all work in the field of design and art. Our studio, Paper Bee, is in Vallila district of Helsinki. It’s a cozy area with old stone and wooden houses and there’s a lot of other creative people working here too, so it has a good energy.

LOL: Do you listen to music while you work? What are you playing at the moment?

HK: I don’t always listen to anything at all, but if I do it has to be something familiar and that doesn’t take the focus out of the work. I’ve been listening Steve Reich and Jan Johansson lately.

LOL: What does creativity mean to you?

HK: It’s playfulness, curiosity and the joy of making things.

LOL: If you could travel through time which direction would you go in?

HK: I think I’d go to the past and keep the future unrevealed.

LOL: What figure from the past would you like to have tea with and what would you ask them?

HK: Tove Jansson, she’s an inspiration in many ways.

LOL: What/who inspires you?

HK: I’m inspired by the simple things and the imperfect beauty of them. It can be pretty much everything though!

LOL: Who would your dream collaboration be with?

HK: There are many people I’ve love to work with. For example I’ve admired the work of the Japanese brand Minä Perhonen for a long time, so working with them would be one dream come true!

So, there you go, now you know a little more about Hanna and what she does. May we now suggest you navigate to the mens, ladies or kids section and get a bit of that slightly Po-Mo, bold HK x LOL print in your wardrobe?

Stylist Live - fast and fun.

We came. We saw, We drank gin.

Well, that was a busy few days for us. We rolled some of the shop cases over to the Business Design Centre in Islington for the first Stylist Live event. It was a bit strange to be back in Islington; but at the other end of Upper Street from where we spent all those years in the shop. For a first attempt it was a pretty impressive turnout for the Stylist event. They told us they’d shifted around 15 000 tickets over the 4 days. At some points it felt super busy but for the most part it just felt nicely busy with people streaming by all day.

We took along the cash-desk-boom-box as we needed the desk unit but in the end we just plugged it in and blasted the Caudalie folks across the aisle with a mix of disco, electronica, hip-hop and Kate Bush - they said it made their event and gave us some freebies in return. We recruited quite a few new friends over the weekend through the medium of music and spent quite a lot of time spinning our playlists so you can get a flavour here. Maybe we should just ‘pivot’ and change into a sound-system brand?

We met a lot of old faces from the shop days as well as meeting a load of new folks and showing the wares to everyone from the slightly bemused looking tourists to Edith Bowman (as seen below - yea, she was taller than we expected as well). We also spent a good bit of time drinking samples from the Portabello Road Gin stand - thanks guys.

The first sightings of the new Hanna Konola collaboration also went down well with everyone loving the print and quite a few enquiries from men looking for pieces in the print. We will have a version of the print for men, it’s arriving in the next week or so. It’s going to be late November by the time we get all the pieces in, checked, photographed and loaded up to the E-shop. If you desperately want a piece you saw then drop us a mail and we’ll sort something out for you.

We’re currently looking for a space for an Xmas pop-up so if you see anything good then do let us know. And if / when we find one you’re sure to be the first to know.

A few more pics below.

LOL x HK lands briefly at Stylist Live

An early chance to grab a piece of the Labour of Love x Hanna Konola collection

Thanks for dropping by

The Old Street pop up was a lot of fun. Thanks for that.

POP Up Is Up and Running

The shop is up and running till saturday the 18th. Come say Hi.

We’re Up. We Think We’re Running.

After what can only be described as akin to thinking you’re setting off for the shop to buy some cheese and onion crisps, only to find that you had inadvertently enrolled for a marathon with no get out clause, the new site is finally up. What do you think? We like it - which is handy. We…

It gives us much more scope to share all the good stuff we’ve been working on and seem to accumulate. There’s the new edit section where you’ll find a super-curated guide to what’s on and worth seeing, what’s exciting us generally, LOL related news and press.

There’s a playlist section to share what’s we’re playing in the studio. It’ll be a mixed bag but, like the CD’s we used to burn when we opened the shop, we hope you’ll find something you like in there. We might even post up the first of the CDs we did for LOL about 12 years ago, we seem to remember it included Gill Scott Heron, Arab Strap and Le Tigre (as we said, mixed bag). We’ll also be inviting some guests to participate and share what’s exciting them sonically.

There will be shopable look books - well there will be from next season. We’re also planning a little print edition once or twice a year so sign up at the bottom of the home page if you’re interested and want to stay informed. The newsletter will also become more aligned with the new site offering a regular dose of inspirational goings on as well as LOL product.

But that’s all an aside to the completely new shop section. Easier to shop, all the ladies, mens and kids collections in one place, better images, actual descriptions and sizing info, more control for us over promotions and possibly the bit that interests you most; CHEAPER SHIPPING (free in UK). You’ll also notice, upon delivery, a complete redesign of the packaging as well.

So, in retrospect maybe we underestimated just what we were undertaking. We hope you appreciate the changes as much as us though. Let us know what you think.

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