This personal project was devised as a challenge to see if I could create a Gregorian calendar with the corresponding dates on Mars for the year 2014. Based on the Darian Calendar devised by Thomas Gangale in 1985.

Ideally it would have been finished in 2013 ready for 2014, however due to our new baby boy Frank arriving on Christmas day, we had our hands full getting ready for his arrival.

Screen printed 700mm x 500mm (27.55″ x 19.68″) printed on GF Smith Colourplan Ice White 270gsm using water based inks that are environmentally friendly and soil association accredited. Printed by One69A located in Islington Mill, Manchester.

£25 £15 + postage (Frame not included). Purchase one from our shop…

We both hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a cracking start to the New Year, we have kicked off January with more work and exciting opportunities – David is freelancing at design agencies and Helen is scheduled to be jetting off around Europe and the Middle East for client projects in the coming months.

Our online shop is still offering 25% off all limited edition prints until the end of January. Check out our images at the Notworkrelated Shop.

We have also collectively been asked to be judges in an online competition in conjunction with The Printspace which we are very excited about. More to come on that once we start the judging process. How exciting.

This morning we had a lovely delivery from Glasgow Press which contained our new look business cards. New colour, new classic typeface (Gill Sans), letterpressed, white ink and GF Smith paper stock all combine to create these little beauties. Looking forward to handing some of these out. Thanks to Glasgow Press for the great service. *UPDATE – here is a nice article about the new business card packaging from Glasgow Press…*

• Colorplan Ice White 270gsm / Colorplan Turquoise 270gsm = Duplex of 540gsm.
• Side 1. White Foil, Turquoise Colorplan 270gsm.
• Side 2. Pantone to match the Turquoise Colorplan, letterpressed text on Colorplan Ice White 270gsm.

Whilst travelling many months throughout Asia we have accumulated lots of photographs with our lovely Leica and Olympus cameras. After cutting our trip short due to unforeseen circumstances we have had the chance to work through literally thousands of photos and we would like to offer our followers a little piece of our adventure.

In celebration of our first guest post going live, our online shop launching and part two of notworkrelated starting in August; we wanted to run a little contest…

We are giving away a 24″ x 20″ (61cm x 51.5cm) photo-quality print from our notworkrelated round the world travels. This prize is a print from our first country visited – Japan!

Here are the details – Please read this carefully!

How to enter: (Contest Ended!)

- Follow notworkrelated on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/notworkrelated_)

(If you are already following or like us then there is no need to unfollow and refollow – doing so repeatedly will get you blocked and banned from the contest.)

- Tweet the message on Twitter you see below just ONE TIME! (There is no advantage to tweeting more than once. There is also no penalty for tweeting more than once but you won’t have any better chance of winning and you may anger your own Twitter followers if you decide to tweet more than once)

Win a 20″x24″ print from our #rtw #travel adventures in Asia. #nwrjuly2011 Please RT. Info at: http://bit.ly/n9XfXp

Total value for all prizes = approximately £50.00. The prize winner will be selected by random after the closing date at noon on July 16, 2011.

The Prize:

Grand Prize (1 winner):
- A photographic print on Fuji Crystal Archive paper with a semi-matt finish. Here is the print that you can win…

The prize: A print taken in Japan on the Leica! (Printed area is 21.5"x14.5" on paper that is 24"x20")

Upclose and personal. Detail shot of the print that you can win!

No purchase necessary to enter or win.

1. You must be 18 years or older to enter
2. You must be following Notworkrelated on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/notworkrelated_)
3. You must send out the above tweet EXACTLY as it appears. A failure to do so will disqualify you. Do NOT put @ sign in front of notworkrelated_ anywhere in the Tweet. This is by design, we do not want our twitter stream filled with entries!
4. Entry to the contest will close on Saturday July 16, 2011, 2011 at noon GMT. Any tweets will not be included in the random draw to decide a winner after this deadline.
5. The prize winner will be selected on July 16, 2011. We will congratulate you on twitter and also contact you via a private message on Twitter to inform you further and find out a delivery address etc.
6. If you live outside the UK you are responsible for any taxes, custom duties and shipping in the event you win. We will only ship the prize to a UK, USA or European address via Royal Mail Internatonal Signed For / Recorded delivery.
7. Depending on where you want your prize delived it may take up to 28 days to arrive, but we will post it ASAP. Proof of shipment to the winner’s address shall end any obligation to deliver any prize under these rules.
8. The prize will be rolled and sent in a tube to the winners address. The prize does not include any mounts, frames or hanging materials – Print only.

For the full Terms and Conditions please see here…

Notworkrelated will keep a record of each tweet in a database and then a random number generator picks the winner. We will attempt to answer questions but we both have busy vocations and are planning the next trip so we cannot guaretee we will be able to respond! Good Luck!

As we are staying in a Hutong it makes sense document the way of life here. On the surface many of these alleyways look pre-historic and worn, but we know that inside they may be completely the opposite and often you will see a huge 40 inch TV screen through the window. There is always construction occurring throughout the Hutong area and it seems that the community are the one’s who get behind the backbone of the work. Washing is left to dry on the street and many still don’t have wash/toilet facilities so every 50 meters or so there are public toilets. There is a huge element of trust and respect in the Hutong, children safely play in the streets whilst old women chat on the corner selling oranges or dried fruit. The alleys are always busy and where we are staying we’ve noticed a games room of a night time packed with locals playing the local board game. We’re not sure what they’re doing but it sounds and looks like they’re having loads of fun. You can get good street food and since we’ve settled into out area we often get the nod from our service operators for the apartment block. This is certainly an experience we will never forget.

In contrast to this we have The Village in Sanlitun. If you’re ever feeling homesick as a westerner in Beijing this is the place to go, however it’s very easy to forget that you’re in China at all. The Village is a huge shopping, restaurant and apartment complex with stores ranging from Adidas through to Prada. Although parts of the Village are bustling with expats, at the northern end the designer stores seem to be lost in an architectural maze of glass, lights and space. We walked around one of the malls at 6pm and it was completely empty. We’d been to see the Frank Gehry exhibition, which we enjoyed and Helen enjoyed a new hair cut, afterwards we couldn’t stop ourselves from photographing the empty vast spaces that surround us. It all seems a little eery but also as if everyone is waiting for something to happen. The designer retail market hasn’t quite hit off over here yet but we’re sure that in the next few years Gucci will be frequented more and more as the capital grows.

So tradition and culture versus modern urban living? We don’t think we could live in a Hutong area all year round but it certainly has character, charm and atmosphere. The Village offers comfort but you could be anywhere in the world in a sterile shopping mall with lift music ringing in your ears. We would rather have the crude neon BBQ signs and locals riding around on bikes shouting to collect your rubbish. They are protecting the Hutong around the Forbidden City which is a relief to hear as this is where the history lies and where the real Beijing exists.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)