Looking and SEEING

Taking a closer look at how books are arranged and displayed in bookshops, has really opened my eyes to the stark and frightening reality - there is a LOT of bad design out there.  And I mean bad.  Awful, in fact.
Designs where there is no real thought put towards developing a concept or the type that is used, or anything else of that nature.

There are no words.

Background Research

My interpretation of the book 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' (with regards to mood, tone, colour palettes, textures, and the general look of worlds)

Location/Setting

Space - Various Planetscapes incl. Earth and the ancient world of Magrathea (which has two suns)

Planet Earth - Somewhere near London

Ship Interiors
There are two spaceships that feature strongly in this story: 1) The Vogon carrier ship (which is rusted and dirtier, and has unwashed objects like mattresses, etc) and 2) The Heart Of Gold (this cleaner and whier, and brand new.  It has an oblong shaped control room.  It is so new, the plastic hasn't been taken off some of the seats yet).

The two ships each have very distinct and contrasting looks.

Here is a mood board for each of the ships interiors:

Colour Schemes

  

My Prezi

Book Cover Design - Research on Prezi

So here's my presentation for research work (looking all fancy and what not.  Ah, the beauty of technology...).  This was the first time that I'd ever done a full-on big screen presentation - and I was nervous as hell.  I can only get better, right? Just as long as I don't forget get to speak.

Look a little closer...

When it comes down to it, this whole project isn't just about trying to be the best or trying to have the best design or whatever.  It's about learning.  Looking and seeing, and learning from other designers - and as we were told - from each other. 

Walk into a book shop and look around (you don't need to convince me, I could live in a book shop...of course, it wouldn't last very long.  You can't eat books.  I learnt that the hard way...).

How are the books arranged?, how are they displayed?, what kind of book covers grab you and pull you and make you look at them a little closer - basically, what makes a design good? Concepts, wit, typography, colour, brilliant photographs; there are lots of reasons for something to really work.  Here are some designs that have caught my eye over the past week...

This book is called 'The Next Page'

(I think I'm in love with this...)

Ranking - Visual Communications

Hello again.  With the elective weeks over and done with, I have finally come to a decision on what I want - and that's Graphics.  The next four weeks before Easter will consist of a one week research assignment and a presentation, and then a three week ranking project.

The basic outline of the brief is to research and then design a book cover for your chosen novel/short story.

After a lot of hovering (not literally, of course...though that'd be pretty cool..) and deliberating between books I have chosen to tackle the wonderfully wacky 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy' by the brilliant Douglas Adams (rest in peace).

Arthur Dent on the demolition of his house:

      "The first I knew about it was when a workman arrived at my home yesterday.  I asked him if he'd come to clean the windows, and he said no he'd come to demolish the house.  He didn't tell me straight away, of course.  Oh no.  First he wiped a couple of windows and charged me a fiver.  Then he told me."

Embrace - My Animation

This piece took about 2 hours and a whole lot of patience on my brother's part (thanks Kieran).
I was looking at the idea of braces and what they can represent in a symbolic sense - but really, interpret it as you will...

Song "Unspoken" by Hurts

Week Two - Illustration

This week we had to come up with two solutions for our word, through the medium of illustration.

Solution One

Concept - Embracing An Idea Through Creative Process
(from drawings to a final piece)

(Leaving an impression...)

Above: A frame from my stop motion animation

Solution Two

Concept - Embracing A Space (and making it my own)

Youtube does wonders...

A beautiful little stop motion animation I found on youtube:

Week One: Three Finished Ideas and a Presentation

Embrace = To wrap around, to hug or hold affectionately or passionately.

The first thing I thought of here was clothing.  They embrace us, they warm us and comfort us.  And I thought it would be quiet an interesting and fun idea to form the word from letters on people's shirts.

This would also give me an oppurtunity to get out of the studio and interact with people, all in the name of art.  I went around the college with a camera and took pictures of anyone who would pose for me.

And here is the finished piece:

*******

Embrace = I sometimes associate with childhood and family, and growing up.



Above : Two variations on the same idea.  A bracelet wraps around your wrist, and as you break up the word EMBRACE it contains the words 'brace' and 'bra'.  The concept behind the piece comes from the idea of growth and acceptance.  I found myself thinking of the transition between childhood and adulthood.

I made both the bracelets; the second one from beads that I used myself when I was younger.

My third idea is in the form of a three-part animation.

Embracing A Wall/Pillar

Embracing A Door

Embracing A Space

(this took me all day! and a lot of printing...)

The Video

I might add some sound to these, I'm not sure yet.  We'll see.

Fear and loathing

Fear.  Fear and deadlines do not mix.  And fear and art certainly never will.  When you're afraid you can't think, you can't create, and you can't be all that you can be.  But if you're afraid and you don't really know that you're afraid - well then it's goodbye ambition, hello disappointment.

I'm not trying to be a poster girl for self-depreciation, I mean, I've never been that.  But for the first couple of days I couldn't think of anything. Nada. I had no ideas, whatsoever.

So I quietly stuck to my desk; I researched the word, wrote it and re-wrote it, broke it up, turned it upside down, wrapped it around itself...and it wasn't until the mid-week presentation that I realised - I haven't done that much at all.  VisCom isn't about sitting in a studio writing words, it's about concepts and ideas and pushing the boat out as far as it can go.  For years I thought Sculpture and Graphic Design were polar opposites, but now I see that they are two sides of the same coin.  They are both based, in some form or another, on conceptual thinking, on innovation and a willingness to travel far beyond that infamous box that keeps us tethered to the ground.

        

And my word is...

Elective Three - Visual Communications

Okay, now I'm scared.  I came into this college with an open-mindedness towards learning and adapting myself whenever was needed, but there has always been a part of me that has somehow wanted to end up in Graphic Design.  And this is an opportunity for me to find out just how suited to it I actually am.

The brief for Graphics has been divided into two parts: Typography (week one) and Illustration (week two).

On the first day we will each be given a word at random, our objective: to best convey it's meaning through the use of type/the word itself, and then in the second week only through illustration.

Sitting on my shelf

(I'm sure I'll get to them eventually...)

Sketchbook

It's a big'un (well, sort of...)

'DLZ' Tv on the Radio

Artist's Statement and Assessment

My Artist's Statement:
My response to the brief was to explore the figure in space, and itself in isolation.  The concept is not about the detail, but about representation and the essense of the human spirit.  This response follows on from the subject matter of my first elective brief for Sculpture : The Body.

'St Joseph's Street' Print

*****

Another elective, another result.  I'm glad to say that I did really well, again!

Excuse me for a moment, I just need to go jump up and down for a while... :-)

Final Prints

Here are just a few:

Frank Auerbach

The man himself...

A couple of weeks ago I watched a documentary on the artist Frank Auerbach in my Critical and Contextual Studies class, and it made me look at the life of a painter in a new way.  Auerbach is consumed by his art, he lives it and breathes it.  It seems that nothing else is as important to him.  His paintings are rich and sumptous and covered in layers and layers of paint.  Often it is difficult to make out the figures, to understand them.  His objective is to capture the essence of a person.  And he himself is certainly an interesting one.

Here are some examples of his work, work which often takes him years to complete (as he would continuely work over his pieces, never truely happy with how he had captured his models):

Head Of Leon Kossoff, 1957
charcoal and chalk on paper



E.O.W. on the Bed at Earl's Court, 1959
charcoal and chalk on paper



...and working with paint

Clip from the documentary 'Frank Auerbach : To the Studio'