Nature's best designed island: my typo fun.

I've always loved the shape of the Isle of Wight; it's a real design job in progress. An island that has this distinctive layout, obeying more or less, the cardinal points of the compass. Not a discarded sock or dead guinea pig like the Isle of Man, this is a professional job. The place has identity. It's a diamond.

My mate Laurence has a gallery in Yarmouth, and he was asking me to think of stuff he could sell beside the people prints. Could I think of something more local; could I come up with a tasteful souvenir? I started mucking about with Adobe Illustrator and the letters that make up the name, and I quickly hit upon a shape that would obey the boundaries of the actual topography, but what excited me more than anything (pathetic, I know) was that the THE became a sort of typo symbol for The Needles (you can't thread),

Commission for Keith Jarrett poster

The last time I saw Keith Jarrett, he spent quite a lot of the time looking distracted, and then, as if too annoyed to continue playing (it was a Miles Tribute at the QEH with his Standards Trio) he strode to front of the stage and pleaded with whoever was videotaping the gig – he could see the red camera light – to discontinue, or there was the strong possibility that he might if things carried on this way.


As it turned out, (I remember a nervy hand-wringing attendant gave him the embarrassing news) the object of his ire was a security camera, parked just above the exit, unblinkingly recording Basin Street Blues, Summertime and all of that night,