I am finally back, I feel like

I've been gone forever.

And technically I was...

I was in the U.K. for 2 weeks,

and now I've been back for a little while,

like, a week now? But then

I was trapped in this polar vortex thing.

It's like negative bajillion degrees outside right now,

and honestly I don't know how I'm surviving it,

but I'm trying, I'm not going outside.

It has been sunny luckily

so I haven't been feeling gloomy and sad,

but ya know, you don't care.

What you do care about is subscribing to my channel

and turning on the little bell

so you get a notification for when I upload,

because I've been getting a lot of new subscribers lately!

Well, a lot to me,

and I'm really excited about it!

So welcome to my channel, and if you haven't subscribed

and you're watching this, subscribe

and ring the bell, if you're already subscribed,

[pause] do it!

So this is a Graphic Designer's Guide to London

now it's not going to be a step-by-step kind of guide

but I thought I would share what I went to see

as a designer, as an artist

what I thought would be so cool to see while I was in London,

and I did it, and so I thought I would share it with you

and just share my little experiences that I had!

So let's talk about it.

Ok so let's start out by talking about why I was in the U.K. in the first place

I didn't just go to travel alone and do a big vacation by myself,

like a solo traveler thing,

I mean I guess I kind of did that,

but, I studied in the U.K. for a semester

and I loved it, I've always wanted to go back,

I would love to live there, I just love the U.K. so much,

I love London. And then

my best friend, who I met while I was studying abroad

is now studying again in the U.K. doing her master's,

and I was like, "yes, this is perfect, I'm coming to visit!"

And then another friend was studying abroad again so we were like,

"it's perfect, I'm just gonna come" so I booked it,

and we had it planned for a few months! So I was like, cool.

Then she was like, "oh I have classes still," so I had to work around that,

but I was still really excited to see her, it doesn't matter what we're doing we always have fun.

So I did a lot of like, solo day trips,

and then the end of my trip was by myself in London,

and then I also hung out with her and we went up to Manchester together

so we traveled around, and it was all together an amazing time.

So I went into London by myself a total of 3 days,

not in a row,

I did a day trip and then at the end I did a 2-day thing in London before leaving.

So that was by myself, and then I also did one day trip with my friend, Lina,

and we went into London and did some cool stuff.

So I'm going to be talking about that, all the cool things in London that I saw, and yeah.

Now I have to admit, I was a little nervous about going into London alone,

and traveling alone in general,

but it actually ended up being a very liberating experience.

And I really like being independent and seeing a city by myself,

navigating the public transportation,

and just seeing all the sights and taking it in at my own pace, on my own time.

And it was so so worth it.

If you are nervous about traveling alone, don't be,

because it was so fun and people are really nice if you give them the chance.

But don't be stupid about anything.

But it was very fun just to experience things alone, and see the sights of London,

even as an artist and designer it is very inspiring just to see everything in London

because it's exactly what you picture, it just so magical.

So the first thing, I guess this is going to be a lot of museums,

museum talk,

if you're not into museums, I'm sorry.

I love museums, and also so much good art is in the museums in London.

So I'm gonna talk about it.

That's just that on that, so guess you're gonna have to deal.

[laughs] But the first thing

I went to was the Victoria & Albert Museum.

And if you recently watched my artist series video on Alan Fletcher

he's the one who designed the logo, so I was so excited to be going there

and just seeing everything that was the branding of the museum.

But then of course, all the amazing works inside the Victoria & Albert museum.

It's a really cool museum,

and the best part about everything in London

all the museums and stuff, they're all free.

So you get to go for free! You can just walk in

and see amazing art, like, "no I didn't pay 25 pounds to see this"

which things in London can get expensive

so definitely take advantage of free museums because they are so worth it.

And the Victoria & Albert museum was great.

So I'm going to be talking about a lot of museums, but

the Design museum, obviously

if you are a designer you have to go see the Design museum.

It is a big architectural building

and they have all these different locations around London

so you can see different installations,

and there are just really cool, interesting facts, and history of design,

all different types of design, not just Graphic Design,

Graphic Design is incorporated in there,

but there's industrial design, architecture, automotive design,

things like that.

So it's very interesting, but I will say it was very small.

Like, the building seemed big but there wasn't much to see.

And they always different special exhibitions and

you have to pay for those, that part's not free,

but, the one when I was there was not that amazing so I didn't go see it,

it was something I wasn't that interested in, it was furniture design.

And I know they've had really cool ones in the past

and they're going to have cool ones in the future,

so just make sure that you keep an eye out

for whatever is going on at the museum because there can be really cool stuff,

but sometimes it's not exactly what you're expecting?

So it wasn't my favorite museum but it was very very interesting, informative,

and I just loved being there.

But I will give a lil shoutout to the gift shop there,

they had tons of different design books,

tons of different postcards, and little things that you can get that you can't really find anywhere else,

like really cool, designed little things.

Things from the exhibitions...

So it was really really cool, the gift shop, and it wasn't very overpriced,

and I bought some things because it was amazing.

So if you don't know I'm also really really into Art History,

and that's why I have the Artist series that I do,

I like to talk about contemporary artists,

I like to talk about, [pause]

even older than that, but

I'm really into contemporary and modern art.

And so I was really excited to go to the Tate Modern museum.

And let me tell you that place did not disappoint!

Everything was free, even the special exhibitions.

It was huge! I spent most of my day in there,

and it was just the coolest place ever.

I got to see so many works by such incredible artists

that I've studied, and also ones that

are just so prolific, and

ugh

it was just an amazing amazing place to go,

as a designer, but also as an artist,

and someone who is really into modern, contemporary art.

It was so so cool and so so worth it.

I would say that anyone who is into art in any capacity

should go to the Tate Modern.

AND, they also had a special exhibition,

(that was free)

and it was on Jenny Holzer's work.

Jenny Holzer is so. cool.

She has a bunch of things called, "Truisms,"

where she writes a lot of lines about the world,

and it's all Type based,

and it's not just Typography, it's about the words.

So it's very interesting,

and I think I'm going to talk about her

soon, in an Artist Series video.

So stay tuned for that.

But seeing Jenny Holzer's work was just so inspiring.

And I also want to give another shoutout to the Tate Modern gift shop,

these museum gift shops are incredible.

I was looking for cool artist bookshops, and galleries where you could buy stuff

around London, I tried to do my research before going

and I really couldn't find anything, at least on Google.

So I was so happy when I found

that the gift shops at the museums were next level,

and really not overpriced.

The Tate Modern had so many different artist prints

that were just a few pounds,

I mean you transfer it to dollars it's a little more.

But, really not that much, inexpensive,

and they had so many different postcards,

and they had things from different categories

of art that was on display in the museum.

So a lot of the stuff I was into, stuff I had studied,

they had like "merch" for it,

and that was really cool.

And then of course they had artist books and magazines.

It was just so worth it, and I went a little crazy

and bought a bunch of stuff for my friends. [laughs]

And it was worth it, it's amazing.

So

overall, that's my shout out for that.

And it was great.

AND the last place I want to talk about,

it's not a museum, thank god, am I right?

So it is actually a restaurant, it's a tea place,

and for me it was really expensive,

but overall the whole experience was so worth it.

And it's such a visually interesting, beautiful place.

I just felt so cool, sitting there having my tea.

I brought Lina on this [pause] event, outing.

We had such a good time because it's the most amazing place.

It's called Sketch, Sketch London.

It's a tea room and restaurant.

And basically the entire place is pink.

There's art everywhere.

And there's a dress code, you have to dress "art smart".

Which, [scoffs] I guess that's just how I dress all the time!

Who knows?

Yeah, it's just the coolest place.

And I have been dying to go there for 3 years,

so I said, "ok this is a once in a lifetime thing,"

"I know it's expensive but I'm gonna do it."

It was overall worth it, the whole experience was so worth it.

And it was just amazing,

and I feel like as a designer, an artist,

you want to find places that are [laughs]

aesthetically pleasing? Maybe that's just me,

but I love going places that have a cool environment,

and just make you feel so... alive!

I don't know! It's this weird thing for me.

As a designer I get so energized by being in places like this.

So it was such an amazing experience for me,

and obviously I needed my pictures in front of a whole pink restaurant.

And you know what? Overall worth it.

And I'm just telling you guys about it, and recommend it to you,

when you go to London, go have some cool afternoon tea, go to Sketch!

Now overall I thought I was going to have a ton of little places to suggest to you guys,

but I didn't see THAT much stuff,

and this was mostly from a design standpoint,

I obviously recommend going to see all the touristy things,

go for it! [laughs]

But I went at my own pace,

and did my own leisurely thing,

and walked everywhere. So definitely do your research,

see what is close to the things you want to go to,

what you want to see around that area...

But also take the tube!

It's so much fun. [laughs]

I love taking public transportation in a city, like, I felt so cool and independent.

But even from a desa - design standpoint? "dezan standpoint" DESIGN standpoint.

It's really cool because I was thinking about the maps,

where they telling you where you're going on what line,

and it's really interesting, these abstract mappings,

that we all seem to understand.

When I got thinking about that I was like,

that's really a strange concept.

Designers really did that.

Things they did: that.

And we all get it now. Designers are amazing.

So go around London, experience the design for yourself,

the art is amazing.

And... Yeah