me, myself and I

more experimenting..

2010-04-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

My friend told me of how once she wrote a story saying how she took the "bog" for a walk an these are the ideas I came up with to illustrate this typical dyslexic mistake (mixing 'b' and 'd'). Color is a bit different on here but hey can't do anything about that!

Experiments for dyslexia project

2010-04-11T03:47:00.000-07:00

Just a small update on work so far. Above are examples of how reading can be difficult with small, serif text as the words "disappear", jump out or letters get mixed up. Looked at how dyslexics spell words as they here them and how their hand writing is messy (below). Can't deiced if it's these examples work but thats what this experimenting stage is about. More work to do.

Posters

2010-03-28T11:13:00.000-07:00

Just came across these posters when I was just browsing on the internet. They're from a website called changethethought which is like a creative community website. I think this is the kind of result I want to do for my Dyslexia project. Image and text based. Have a look at the website as there's lots of other nice things to find.

Panic.. Final idea!!

2010-03-27T07:26:00.000-07:00

Seeing as I was looking as phobia as a theme and using a lot of different ones in my project, a friend pointed out that there is such a thing as having a phobia of phobias. This is called Phobaphobia and basically the person with this condition has one fear at first but then gradually starts to fear more. To me the mind then must play up these fears up constantly and must be going round and around the head where one fear fuels the other. This gave me a image of a machine going round like the brain working constantly. So I thought that I could show how the brain of someone with phobaphobia mind works by playing on fear with another. Heres the first image I designed.

I felt that something more needed to be done so I asked my tutorial group how what would they change? It was felt that the character was so bold and might take emphasis from the work. I needed to deiced what was most important in the image, and also they felt it could be a lot more complicated than it was. There wasn't that many phobias in there and could be done to extreme. So I listened and this is what came out.

The white background for the design was better than the color as you now see the images better. The brain on the bottom doesn't take all the focus away and there's more phobias included in it. This is the final image that I have handed into the exhibit as a A2 piece of work. The aesthetics of the of the image was questioned to whether it should look so cartoon like, however I find that I personally like this style I've worked with. It's definitely a way of drawing I liked but I have a feeling that because someone mentioned the style, I will try some other styles if time permits.

please, please come!!!

2010-03-27T07:23:00.000-07:00

First idea for Panic brief

2010-03-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

My idea. Instead of doing something really serious, I want to do a image response (as I don't really have any image work in my portfolio) where I create a character that is scared of everything. for instance they be scared of Clowns, lightning etc thats on a A5 piece of paper as you can see below.

Now I'm not a 100% on the idea of it! I like the idea and the illustrative way I've done it but i think more thinking is needed before giving it in for the exhibition.

A 2 week project "Panic"

2010-03-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

Great opportunity for us as a year to do a exhibition in a gallery, based in the centre of Manchester. Maximum exposer for our degree show in June. The brief, to create a piece of no more than A2 size, motion or a book, under the theme of Panic. It's all to do with our response to the word and it's in 2 weeks time. A short brief that I can do well.

link to website:- http://noiselab.co.uk/noiselab-presents-panic-student-exhibition

Tonsillitis is a pain!!

2010-03-27T06:26:00.001-07:00

Since February, I've been poorly and had no voice. After a billion tests and 5 weeks of being sick, they finally found out what the problem was! I've had tonsillitis for a year (who knew that could happen) and in 6 weeks time I'm getting them out : ) Sounds a bit... well gay.. but having not being able to do as much work as I wanted/needed to do this term has made me so frustrated and realize that I'm going to miss being in university, in the studio doing work. Having people around to bounce ideas off and seeing some work in progress helps you to do your work! I will miss that a lot when we leave and hope I find a place to work at that feels the same!

It's been 7 weeks and I still have a husky voice but feel better than I have been. I have one project nearly done (I'm just about to talk about that one), the dyslexic project is half way through the experimentation stage and I have 6 weeks to do ad least 2 more projects. I'm giving a warning to you, my family and friends. I'm still alive, just need to get things done!!

Alice and wonderland... finally seen!!

2010-03-27T06:14:00.000-07:00

I had a longly waited for this film! It was hipped so much and yet I found myself telling people "yeh it was good.". I thought I'd be coming out saying it was amazing but I didn't. The design of it all, costumes, images were all great but i found myself thinking that it wasn't needed to be in 3D. I could have easily appreciated the same things if it was in 2D. The story was good as well but I found Alice a bit boring. She just didn't have much facial expression and felt she was dull, but maybe she could have been told to play the character like that so that the other characters would look more. Good film though and would watch it again, just not as amazing as I thought it would be.

Nice find!!

2010-03-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Fun image using the ends of a christmas tree to make the type. Clever!

"Visible signs"... a great help!

2010-03-27T06:01:00.000-07:00

Great book for finding out about language etc! Great for the project I'm on and just for interest for people who just want to learn a bit more!!

Back track on the Dyslexic project!!

2010-03-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

Instead of waiting for the information of descriptions of what is seen by Dyslexic (which is quite hard to find because, like I said, no one has tried to look at this side of Dyslexia in a visual way) thought it be good to have a mini project in between. It opens up the project to look at a area that will help with ideas for the final year.

"Look at the interplay of text, language and understanding to create a body of experiments"

So needed to look at the 3 topics and then set boundaries for instance "try to make the word shout actually Shout" this will just help to experiment a bit more. Get the ball rolling.

Decision on next brief

2010-03-27T05:20:00.000-07:00

I'd been told that my approach to the removal of text in silence and my play with text and image in LBi were the strong points to my first year terms work. So now I had to find a project that would show my strengths even more... it was hard than I thought it would be! I couldn't find any projects that grabbed my attention and therefore decided to create my own brief. I came up with two! I changed one brief from the National Eisteddfod, so it would show my strength with typography, from "Convey the spirit of activism in the struggle for language, culture and politics in Wales" to a

smaller brief

"explore the struggle of Welsh language".

My first language is Welsh so I could do the project easily but without making it too patriotic. The other brief was

"by investigating into Dyslexia, try to visualize how people with this, sees things differently"

How a word seems correct to them when it is spelt wrong or how they see a big bloc of text differently to others.

I went with the second. I'm dyslexic so again it is personal but I honestly believe it's ironic that many of us are visual people but there actually isn't anything out there that visually shows how we see things. Only a lot of books out there that most find really hard to read! So it be very interesting to see what descriptions I get from others as well as my own to create this work.

Cube Gallery Exhibition

2010-03-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

Went to see a exhibition back in February as my friends invited me along as they had heard it was a must see. Along I go to the Cube with no knowledge of what I was going to see but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Alan Fletcher: Fifty years of graphic work (and play), had some of the commercial work that he had done, which was interesting. I had no idea that he created the Victoria and Albert which I do like for it's strength. It has lasted years and stood the test of time!! How can you not respect it.

I did however find myself steering to words the design he had created just for play.

The typography collages, that were hidden down stairs, were my favorite in my opinion. You could see all of the letters he had saved and examples of the collages were in these beautiful framed in a simple way that the work was crispy clean to catch your eye. His clever way of using & to represent the "b" in the word brew, were just so simple it just seemed to make me smile. By not having any preconceptions going to this exhibit, I found some real inspiration in this place where as others had thought it was a bit of a disappointment form having such big expectations. To me however I was thankful for the invite. Thanks Girls!!

Money, Money, Money

2010-03-26T11:52:00.001-07:00

A project to do over the christmas period. Brief that I found on the Roses student creativity awards to "Design a new £5, £10, £20 and £50 note to unify the UK's currency. As with the coins and stamps the Queen's image must be included." A brief that I thought I could create a simple design with some clever ideas with. I went with the idea of designing the notes to be each part of Britain. One side for example with imagery and languages of one country, like Scotland and then the other showing the country united.

As a proud Welsh girl, I wanted to put wales on the £50 note but thought I couldn't. I wanted o show the individuality of different parts of the country as for example, across the bottom I used the different languages to say the amount of the pound note. I think my ideas are strong but I find myself thinking the design isn't anything special. No matter what I thought of my ideas it's not the best work I have done this year in my personal opinion.

LBi finished result

2010-03-26T10:23:00.000-07:00

I really good brief that i found myself really getting stuck into. I thought about many different ways of trying to attract attention to LBi with out being to bold or to simple. I needed to really understand the audience they wanted to attract and therefore decided that LBi has a friendly tone on there website, why not think in that why. To invite them to come and have a discussion on what they can do for them and bribing them with cakes, biscuits and tea. The idea was to make a poster of the acronyms below, in a box with a business card and a tea bag, cake or biscuits. A sample of what they would get when they came over.

After thinking of other ideas, I thought that these two images above were a good idea but others disagreed and said something was missing. In the end I found myself agreeing with them This time I found myself thinking how it could be expanded a bit more. The free items could be expanded to show having pens and ink cartridges so they have things that are useful in the office. Sticking with the idea of having a box with a business card inside, delivered to the company LBi wanted to attract, but instead of having a poster, having a postcard that is used to start the conversation going with the client. I changed the design to a way I felt was better and printed it on a special piece of paper.

The difference in paper gave a quality to it that made it that little more special. The design is so much better than the first result and I do feel the design was a success. The project was fun and I found that by doing the amount of research into the audience was one of the key reasons the project was successful.

Silence has finally been silenced

2010-03-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

After having a discussion on my work on the project I felt for a long time that I could never finish this project. I had hit a brick wall. Silence part one was easy for me. I wanted to use the idea of trying to visually explain what the world would be like with out communication. The images below are the images that came from this project.

Then part 2 came. The brief was to create a folding document that has text on it. I struggled with it because I couldn't deiced what text to use and how to combine it with a image that I personally preferred as they were. It troubled me so much that I had to leave it for a while. In the end I found text that discussed how life would be like if there was no communication and thought of creating a small A4 poster that folded out to show the poster. 6 posters for the 6 images.

I personally thought that the final result was good. I like the images on there own however so that still stick in my mind but I believe I was able to combine the image and text to blend together in a almost.. nearly.. finalized conclusion.

busy busy bee

2010-03-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

As you might have notice I haven't been on here for a while. Big apologies but no fear I will be going back in time to talk about what has happened in the last few months....

Helen Murgatroyd

2009-12-23T03:46:00.000-08:00

Really lovely lecture from a designer we can relate to. She spoke to use about the work she did in university and then on to her MA printing course. Sweet girl who seemed very relaxed talking to everyone. Her work was lovely as well. Her drawing and mapping work was simple but still executed brilliantly. The printing work seemed different from her past work, which I found a bit of a shame, as her idea of using a pencil to map everything could have been expanded in my opinion. One thing you could tell though is that she really enjoys her work and the freedom she has to develop her style further. Her message was to take your time in finding your style, as it will come in time, which is so true. By experimenting we will find it. She was so great with her work and advice; I think I’m actually a bit jealous of her! Here’s her website.

http://www.helenmurgatroyd.co.uk/

Dead Man

2009-12-23T03:44:00.000-08:00

Right, to get it out of the way, I have to say, I love Johnny Depp. Judge all you like, but I think he’s really good and some of his films are my favorites. However, I really didn’t like this film. Sorry Mac but I just didn’t understand it. I’m quite good usually at seeing the hidden meaning here it was hidden so deep I lost interest half way through. Some of it was quite humorous but I do hope the next film is easier to understand.

Craig Lecture

2009-12-23T03:42:00.000-08:00

What a great lecture!! 100% better than the previous weeks lecture. Interesting and relatable, it even made me feel better about not knowing, or being good at everything. He made it fun and took time to make use a calendar with important dates, including the date of his birthday, and also 12 notes on what to do in your first year of leaving university (and now). His pointers were really good and I loved how have gave the lecture in a casual way which was really refreshing. A Great guy who didn’t want to “blow his own trumpet” when discussing his work, but made it fun of himself showing great self-knowing. Think it will take time for us to become like this but I hope it happens soon.

YCN

2009-12-23T03:17:00.000-08:00

Well I hadn’t blogged about this lecture yet because I forgot about it if I’m honest and there isn’t much I can say about it. It’s hard to judge this lecture with the other ones because I felt it wasn’t useful at all. He discussed what we all already new about YCN. It was really dull as well, his voice was one tone and I found myself drifting in and out of the lecture, as I couldn’t concentrate. It just didn’t find it interesting. Sorry.

ijam

2009-11-21T05:52:00.000-08:00

Right I have to stop in the middle of my research to tell you what I’ve found! I’m looking into how companies promote themselves to clients, as this is what LBi want us to try and do for them, and I found this. Shackleton, a Spanish design company, couldn’t decide what to give out to there clients for Christmas to say thank you and to promote them. The decision came down to get them either an ipod or a leg of ham (Jamon in Spanish). So they thought why not combine the ideas together to create ijam(in english iHam). This consisted of creating the box, an online website, booklet and a video to explain how to use your new ijam. In a month, the website had 350,000 and the You Tube video had a 100,000 viewers but these weren’t just companies having a look. It was the general public as well. A great example for the LBi project on self-promotion on a wide scale and I’ll use the example in my essay as well. It’s great when you find something that can connect to so many parts of your work. A nice find from just browsing the Internet.

Live brief

2009-11-21T05:49:00.000-08:00

LBi have given out a brief on the D&AD website for student/designers a like and myself. The brief is

“use typography across any medium to explore the possibilities of meaning behind the LBi name”

Now, I thought it would be a nice brief at first but I’ve found that I now need to have a good look at the audience to see if I can get more ideas for acronyms. So I’ve set a deadline 2 days of research, so I can then get on with ideas. Hopefully this will be something I stick to because you can get so involved with the research sometimes. I think I need deadline more and more now. The silence brief hasn’t had the a real deadline only for January but I think by setting deadlines with this and the other projects I will keep on top of the work. Wish me luck…

Jessica Heffland

2009-11-21T05:39:00.000-08:00

For my essay, Mac gave me a list of people to read up about so it could help me with my writing. Jessica Heffland, a writer for the Observer and a x-student of Paul Rand, was one of them and I have to say her writing is exceptional. I found myself reading article after article because there so easy to read and so insightful. Her writing is refreshing and clever, connecting to her readers from what I can see in the review sections. She covers so many topics in graphic design that if you need a extra quote or two for your essay, or just want some fun reading, have a look!!

http://designobserver.com/author.html?author=397

My little adventure

2009-11-21T05:30:00.000-08:00

With a big hole in my pocket, I can honestly say that I enjoyed every minute of my adventure to the Big Apple. So many photographs, happy memories and a note pad full of notes, it’s a time I will never forget. Seeing the big city has given me a need to visit it again... and again! I feel like I’m chattering on but it’s because I can’t explain how amazing it was. The only way I could explain it is by telling you to go yourself. Thanks Sue, Liz and Hitch.

Let the right one in

2009-11-21T05:28:00.000-08:00

A lot of people said this film was going to be scary. With Halloween on the Saturday, personally I didn’t want a scary film because I’m not particular good watching them. By that I mean I usually find myself hiding behind my pillow and screaming like an idiot. I was glad however to find I was gladly not scared to my core. In fact the film was amazingly done. Not the scary cliché blood and gore film that I was expecting.

The film is based on a novel from 2004 by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The relationship between the boy, Oskar and the girl, Eli is lovely. She is a vampire but in spite of this they have a beautiful friendship. This is helped by how the writer has effectively chosen to not have them speaking all the time. The pauses in the film are so effective especially when the girl locks Oskar behind a glass door. The pause is long. Then he eventually asks her “are you a vampire?” The pause is almost poetic. A film I would defiantly watch again. If I did have one point to say, it would be that the swimming pool scene, where you see the legs moving through the water, it seemed a tad unreal. It didn’t balance with the rest of the film that was fantastic.

Corner house- Bloomberg New Contemporaries

2009-11-21T05:21:00.000-08:00

One Tuesday, I took time to go to the corner house new exhibit. There is a quote on the Internet about it.

"New Contemporaries, formerly Young Contemporaries has a long and illustrious history, dating back to the first exhibition of young graduates in 1949. For the past 60 years this annual show has been dedicated to profiling the work of young, new and emerging artists at the start of their professional careers. Through its annual presence, New Contemporaries has identified serious artists from each generation and given them the opportunity to show for the first time. The premise remains the same today."

The exhibit itself was ok. Nothing really special in my opinion but there was one piece of work I liked. Freya Wright, created small canvas pieces that had some really lovely narrative imagery. I could imagine the story in the image, which is something I like doing when looking at design work. It was definitely a hidden gem in the group as there were some really strange pieces in there. One was work about sex, which I looked at for about 5 minutes and walked away as it seemed so out of place. Very strange work t exhibit together but nice to take some time off from work.

Nicola Rowland

2009-11-21T05:15:00.000-08:00

A self-employed designer, who graduated last year, she came in just to give us some extra advice and it was really helpful. She is personally interested in seeing the connection between words and images but I found here advice to be a great. Here’s a list of key things she says we should do.

Be nice to teachers in uni
Email genuine letters
Be yourself, don’t be wacky
Online presence or pdf portfolio is needed
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, try everything
Ask questions
Be aware of everything
Keep in touch with placements

All great advice I’ll definitely keep in mind! Here is some her work that I like also. Really nice work too.. think i might be tad jealous of her talent and advice!

Diving Bell and the butterfly

2009-11-21T05:08:00.000-08:00

To start I can only say this was my favorite film from the Kino series so far! I had never heard about the film before and the only description I had heard was “just wait and see, it’s great” I agree completely. This film is about Jean Dominique Bauby, who had a big stroke, which left him suffering with a medical condition called locked-in syndrome. A truly beautiful film, he has no control over his body, except for being able to blink, his only way of communicating. The film is so well done that you can understand how frustrating it must be not to have any control. It made me realize how fragile life can be and is for many, to a point where it touched me emotionally. I haven’t been to a film that’s has done that in a long time! An amazing film I’ll watch again. I bought it the day after!:)

Silence update

2009-11-21T05:03:00.001-08:00

I was told of these two designers, Michael Craig Martin (first image) and Patrick Caulfield (second). They helped me with my experiments to try and show a world without communication. They’re designs seem to show an everyday scene but it has a surreal feel to it that’s almost silent. They helped a lot, as this was the type of idea I had in my head but couldn’t describe verbally. Even thought it helped in my experimentation, I wish I could have a “eureka” moment with my final design idea! Ah well, back to the drawing board.

Apology!!

2009-11-21T04:58:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of weeks, life has been so busy! Does seem like things are getting out of hand, I guess that’s the price of 3^rd year for you. So this is my big apology for the non-blogging recently. Hopefully the plan for the next couple of weeks will help me keep on track. Let’s hope it works..

My Beautiful Poster I bought!!

2009-10-11T09:58:00.001-07:00

For years now I feel that when some people create poster for theatre production, they're usually complicated and they really don't need to be. When I was in the Globe theatre in London I bought this poster that is now on my bedroom wall. The best 3 pounds I've spent : ) It’s just elegant and simple, showing in this simple illustration, the love between the two. Passing his heart to her. Brilliant.

Another photograph from ANTM

2009-10-11T09:49:00.000-07:00

I really want to do a photo shoot with paint! It would be so much fun and if you do it right you might get the same result as this. Beautiful.

“Fuerzabruta”

2009-10-11T09:46:00.000-07:00

Whilst watching a old episode of American Next Top Model, they did a photo shoot where the models had to be like the show Fuerzabruta. A show from the Argentine creators of the long-running “De La Guarda,” is another entry in a dependable if not exactly venerable genre: theater for people who don’t really like theater. Patrons are not required to think, feel or even sit down for this hourlong sensory bath at the Daryl Roth Theater. Standing and gaping are all that is strictly necessary, although jumping up and down and dancing are intermittently encouraged. They were able to create amazing shots of them as you can see in the first photographs above. But what I really want to do is to find how I can go to see this show! The images below the photographs taken by the American’s Next Top Model look fantastic and want to see it. If I find out where and how I will let everyone know.

Julian Tevelyan

2009-10-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

I came across Trevelyan who was interested in Surrealism. Influenced by Klee and encouraged by his friendship with Miró and Calder, he gradually developed his own mode of abstract Surrealism. In A Symposium, the image above, Trevelyan combined painting and carving and attached parts to the wooden panel. He later recalled: ‘I had invented a sort of mythology of cities, of fragile structures carrying here and there a few waif-like inhabitants.’ Simple but full of interesting parts and delicate looking. Might try to look at more ideas created by him to see if it can inspire me more in future projects.

Robert Smithson

2009-10-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

A compelling designer I found in the Tate and forgot about till now. His work consist of a map depicts an area of the shore of Cayuga Lake in New York State. Starting at the Andrew Dickson White Museum at Cornell University in Ithaca, Smithson carried a mirror northwards to the Cayuga Salt Works. At eight locations, marked on the map with Letraset letters, he placed the mirror in the landscape and photographed it. The images in the mirror were not intended to record the sites themselves but, rather, to show nature reflected back at itself. Nice idea and it was similar to an idea I had in the silence project of a peaceful reflection.

A world without communication

2009-10-11T09:34:00.000-07:00

With the silence project I mentioned, I’ve decided to go with my thought that silence is when someone doesn’t communicate, but does it have to be someone. Could it be when something doesn’t communicate? Everyday we are given information and people take it for granted. Thanks to Jemma she handed me a piece of paper that explained how communication whether it’s from a digital clock, t.v. Advert, Logo, boy or girl sign in the toilet, is all a form of this. This is defiantly what I would like to concentrate on. How the world would be silent without visual communication. As I think about it more and more I hope to be able to visually show this for the next meeting.

2009-10-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

He is a sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. I was able to see his work for myself and that’s the plug image above and I just found it to be very unique and fun side to looking at it all. I like looking outside of graphic design for inspiration sometimes as it sometimes looking outside of the box in different design environments. Fun to look at and sometimes out of the ordinary.

Alice and wonderland

2009-10-11T09:12:00.000-07:00

I know I’m behind the times showing these photographs from the up and coming film of Alice and Wonderland but I just remembered about it. The make-up and the digital changes are amazing and I can’t wait to go and see it.

No logo

2009-10-11T09:04:00.001-07:00

I Sao Paulo A fed up with the rampant advertising smothering his city, São Paulo's mayor, Gilberto Kassab, passed legislature last year effectively banning all outdoor advertising in Brazil's largest metro. Six months later, the removal of all the advertising is nearly complete and the city looks eerily vacant. Photographer Tony de Marco has a slideshow up on flickr documenting the decontamination of what Mayor Kassab has called São Paulo's "visual pollution" problem. Really interesting thought and combines a little with my idea of blocking communication. Images are powerful in themselves!

Post secret

2009-10-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

I way of telling your secret without having to say who you are. A simple idea where you can unload your secrets and get them off your chest and you design them. This was a book that influenced me in a project last year. I love how Frank Warren decided to get his audience to participate in his project as, to me; it gives more of a personal touch to it all. Here are some of my favorites above.

Russian Revolution Posters

2009-10-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

When visiting the Tate there was a whole section dedicated to the Red Star Over Russia. At first, few Russian political posters featured women. Those that portrayed female figures did so allegorically: women were used to represent abstract ideas such as freedom or liberty. In 1918, after women were emancipated in the communist revolution, posters had more realistic representations: women depicted as workers and purveyors of socialist thought. They were powerful, bold and thought provoking. Here are some examples of this. They really do stand out to me so I thought I would give them a mention. First posters that I’ve seen of this age that make women look powerful instead of dainty little women who just clean the house for there husbands like in American posters.

London

2009-10-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Finally have my photographs from London on my Mac : ) it was fun being a tourist and I would love to go back for couple more days. It’s addictive and full of life… but did have to push past a lot of people to get around.

London Tate Exhibition “No Ghost just a Shell”

2009-10-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

The Tate galleries are always interesting in my opinion. They hold pieces of old art and design from the age of cubism, futurism, Vorticism and then have the modern exhibits. This gives me a sense of old and new coming together and seeing how the world has developed through the ages.

It was a great day and I managed to find a really interesting exhibit called “No Ghost jut a Shell” which dealt with image identity. The film and music industries, and the internet, face us with copyright questions nowadays. The project addresses those issues as well overlaps with questions about how identity and difference can be formulated today, given the current demand for the mastery of multiple individual subject realizations. It was different and fascinating to see for instance, a book with the branding of Ikea, being called ‘DIY of how to kill yourself anywhere in the world for under $ 399 by Jo Scanlon. The idea of using the a brand name that is know for it’s simple instructions is a clever and well thought idea. The best design in this, in my opinion, was the one, which included the title you can see above. To me it just symbolizes how shell have done bad things in the past and leavening a shell of a person. The concept of it is beautiful to me some how and every thought has gone to thinking where to put the text, image and paint. Great exhibition and the place it’s self is full of inspiration. Worth a visit.

Exciting first couple of weeks and more

2009-10-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

I’ve had all my first tutorials now for the silence like I said and also for my dissertation, which was really handy. I knew what I wanted to discuss it was just the fact I had no references and needed help for finding more ideas. I have only got half of the books I was told to get as there not all in the library, which is so annoying. But I feel on track with many, many books to read this week as well as thinking of the silence project, this blog and cpt file… but I find my concentration going towards the up and coming trip to New York 3 weeks to go!!

Paul Rand

2009-10-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

In my dissertation outline, I had a quote by Paul Rand discussing what graphic designers do, when Mac asked me if I knew who it was. Stupidly I replied that I didn’t. Maybe I was shy or my brain had stopped functioning for that second as I know he’s work form first year. He’s effective but simple way of designing has been used to create corporate identities for IBM, ford, ABC etc but my favorite is the IBM logo above where he has created symbols instead of text. He’s created the logos we recognise easily but had time to play around with it. A quote I found by him shows how he did like to think outside of the box and want to defamiliarize the ordinary, which I hope I remember when I do future projects

“From Impressionism to Pop Art, the commonplace and even the comic strip have become ingredients for the artist’s cauldron. What Cézanne did with apples, Picasso with guitars, Léger with machines, Schwitters with rubbish, and Duchamp with urinals makes it clear that revelation does not depend upon grandiose concepts. The problem of the artist is to defamiliarize the ordinary.”

Book cover from seconder year

2009-10-10T03:48:00.000-07:00

These are book cover designs I created last year in uni which I really liked doing and I'm quiet proud of them. We had create book cover designs that stood out for not being cliche for the list they gave us were well known books. I choose the Jane Austen collection of Emma, Pride and Prejudice,Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Abbey. It was a project that I pushed myself to get a better result and they tears payed off as I really liked them. So here they are.

Bridget Riley “Flashback”

2009-10-10T03:42:00.000-07:00

A celebrated contemporary artist, during the early 1960’s she created black and white images that stood out in thier time. With work as well in color, her work is so detailed that she planned every piece right before she created them in a grid. Every piece of work was made with different papers but I did really like seeing how she figured out her plans as they seem so intricate and thoughtful to create her next piece. That was my highlight of the exhibition as I really like seeing how you can come to the final process.

National Conseration Centre: ‘Liverpool People” by Stephen Shakeshaft

2009-10-10T03:29:00.000-07:00

A exhibitions full of photographs by this man who loved Liverpool and has captured the news and events from the 1960’s through to his retirement in 2005. He was able to create work full of nostalgic feel and every image had a story to tell. His says “Much of my work involved sports and news stories but there were often quieter periods when I might see an everyday scene making a great picture.” And this adds to my thought that he was able to catch the culture, political, social and the evolution of the city. Some images were of ordinary people but then there were images with famous people like Cilla Black and Paul McCartney, which shows how, yes he took images of the stars but then was able to show all sides of Liverpool.

This image caught my eye is the one with images of people. They have such stories in there facial expressions that you can relate to there stories. Seeing images like this that have such a heart felt story behind them, was lovely to see and it was a great way of seeing how Liverpool was seen in somebody else’s eyes.

Trip to Trip to Liverpool with an amazing piece of work by Ben Johnson

2009-10-10T03:15:00.000-07:00

Had a little trip to go to Liverpoll for only £6, which is worth it when it doesn’t cost that much, and with free exhibits it was worth the trip. Seeing work by Bridget riley and Stephen Shakeshaft, a great photographer and worth looking at, it was nice to go somewhere different to see art and design. One piece of work in the galleries was by Ben Johnson who was born in my hometown Llandudno and he has created a painting of Liverpool with paint, which is absolutely amazing. The detail of every part of Liverpool, even in the background you can see the houses windows. No part of it didn’t have exceptional detail to it and with him from my own hometown ill try to keep an eye out to see if he does anymore great pieces of work. Liverpool is a really nice place also so defiantly will go back to see more artwork… and maybe a bit of shopping.

Rollerball- 1975

2009-10-10T03:11:00.000-07:00

Film that was known for its violence, which I agree with defiantly, but really was interesting! A world where a corporation tries to run peoples lives and decides all the rules. Good film worth watching.

“I reserve the right to make a banana”-Johnny Hardstaff

2009-10-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

I really liked Johnny Hardstaff’s work and they way is thinks. I really liked the simplicity in his work, which probably means I’m one of the people that he try’s to manipulate, but the simplicity in the orange advert where the paint overflows then is perfect to just catch the attention. He’s honesty was also good as he described what he liked/disliked about his work and his experiences in the industry made me feel better as I go towards leaving third year. It’s scary to think about it but as long as we remember if we want to use a banana in our work, we should use it. Anything is possible.

silence.... shhh

2009-10-10T02:39:00.000-07:00

The first project to kick start the year. We have to, in our own way interpret the word silence in some sort of visual communicative way. It’s open, and can be interpreted in our own personal way that I usually love but I have to say I found it really hard to think of ideas that weren’t cliché. As I look through designers however, I’m starting to get into it a lot more and found a little path that I can go by. Hopefully I won’t come to a stop.

Kino4 summer brief.

2009-10-10T02:13:00.000-07:00

Here you can see my some of my final branding ideas, with the top one being my favorite I did for Kino4 and to be honest I really did struggle for while with it. I was determined to create a poster but I found my self-concentrating more on the word kino4 than anything else. So naturally decided that was what I wanted to concentrate on. Good little project to get the brain working again after a long summer off.

Placement

2009-09-10T10:27:00.000-07:00

Just had my work placement in heavenly, a branding and marketing company, who from what I saw did good work and thinks about the whole picture. They design the logo but then think about where should it be placed and what could boost the company with PR stunts etc. It was interesting to see how a company works and how it works on a project. I got some really good training on Illustrator and Photoshop as we did the projects that included creating a logo and a brand extension to a project already done by the company. Here's the website http://www.heavenly.co.uk/ which is a clever little website to have a look at.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple”

2009-09-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

Sara Fanelli. A illustrator that I really like. Mixing work from illustrating books, menus and adverts that are visually beautiful. Having just seen the timeline she designed in London Tate Modern, her handwritten typography is lovely and could makes it easier to read in my opinion. Making what could be a boring time line look more playful. Her work mostly consists of things being hand crafted using collage and drawing creating work that is unique and playful.

Problem Solved

2009-09-10T10:22:00.001-07:00

A book I read a month ago that I read fully in 2 days. Really interesting ideas about how to solve problems, obvious from the title. It gives you advise on how to deal with different scenarios and has good references for them. Inspirational ideas and good examples for a dissertation based on how ideas work or can be pushed.

Dada

2009-05-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

Dada was a big group that radicalized typography in my opinion. They assembled their typography by pasting the letters in place for photographic reproduction. This ingenious idea to use writing as an expression of emotion allowed the Dadaists to protest the misguided rationality of society. They were the vanguards of graffiti artists and they used this radical typography as a signature to proclaim who they were and what they were about. Dada helped to free typography from “rectilinear restrictions; and reinforced the Cubist idea of letterforms as visual experience”. They pieces here are amazing and I do really like them. They inspired me because they combine typography and images so well to create work that is successful. You can see the thought behind the work and every letter is placed pacifically to give a message they want to say out. To be able to get your message across and still being able to make it visually interesting is exceptional to me.