Review 2007: Alex Bec

As part of the Boicozine Review of the Year 2007, we’re asking a bunch of top creative practitioners for their opinions on the highlights and the lowlifes of the year. First up is Mr Alex Bec [alexbec.com]. It’s been a hectic year for Mr Bec. After graduating from Brighton and working on a handful of projects, with Will Hudson [willhudson.co.uk] under the moniker, ‘ifyoucould’ [ifyoucould.co.uk], Alex has gone onto completing various illustration commissions both in the UK and overseas, exhibiting work at various shows such as the recent Polygon Show [polygonshow.com] and helping art direct this year’s YCN annual, ‘Book 0708′ [ycnonline.com/book0708]. Currently working with the Peepshow [peepshow.org.uk] collective and exhibiting at The Design Grotto [thedesigngrotto.com], this is Alex’s pick of the year…

Publications
My lasting impression of publications in 2007 has been the whole ‘new ugly’ thing which hasn’t really filled me with excitement. So I’m going for the classic printing of 032c by Node Design from 2002 [nodeberlin.com/032c] which shows up it’s older, uglier brother [032c.com]. If I have to choose something from 2007 then I’d go for the fantastic Hand Job by Mike Perry [midwestisbest.com], exciting from start to finish /
 
Music
Alela Diane ‘Pirate’s Gospel’ [aleladiane.com] has been an absolute saviour for me in 2007, heartfelt and beautiful throughout. Most listened to would have to be ‘Closer’ by Joy Division [google.com/music] in memory of the late great Tony Wilson, or as Mike (editor’s note: that’s me!) knows, a fair bit of The Fall [visi.com/fall] /
 
Film
Control [IMDb] had me totally mesmerised /
 
Design & Illustration
This is a very difficult one, and almost impossible to choose. So I won’t go for anything in particular, but the rise of Alex Trochut [alextrochut.com] has been fantastic and Benoit Lemoine’s [lemoinebenoit.eu] ‘Vernacular’ made me smile /
 
Events & Exhibitions
EXIT festival [exitfest.org] in Serbia was a joy as always and Anthony Gormley at the Hayward [southbankcentre.co.uk/gormley] definitely deserves a mention for sheer audacity /
 
Purchases
‘Walk Away Rene’ by Hipgnosis [sound.jp/hipgnosis]. Humbling /
 
Places to Visit
You can never beat a bit of going home for mum’s cooking /
 
Worst Thing about this year
The London Paper

The image above is part of Alex’s recent work with Peepshow for the upcoming 2008 Creative Review Handbook [chb.com].