Easter break

I've enjoyed my time off over these last couple of weeks, I've managed to have a break from uni, a break from work, played fallout 3 too much, visited the cube gallery, gone to london to see my girlfriend, spent too much money on toys, books and t-shirts and visited Tate Modern... so all in all... fairly productive. I've even been digging up research for the new 7x7 (previously 6x6) brief, although I already have some doubts over which specific era I should focus on... film noir 1930's or classic pinup mid/late 1940's...? need to quiz the author on that one...

anyway...
@the Cube - Alan Fletcher Exhibition (now ended) (more images)

At first I thought, oh no... another graphic designer, but I actually found the exhibit quite enjoyable mainly due to large poster prints. A lot of his work has stood the test of time, or graphic design hasn't moved on that much ;) (at least its not "vintage/retro"). Seeing the prints up close really makes you appreciate the process by which they were made and also how technically skilled some of these artists/designers really were... there was no Illustrator or photoshop to edit>undo a mistake back then. I really, really, REALLY want to screenprint again soon.. seeing all these works (plus stuff at the Tate.. see further down) is teasing and taunting me...

As James put it, a lot of the pieces on display were more like ephemera rather than pieces of artwork, which was true... but thats the kinda stuff I actually like and want to put my own work on... simple things that can be seen by everyone, everywhere... but I love how something such as a logo can be placed on a myriad of different things.. (as seen in the 3rd photo below... a pin badge, keyring, bookmark, label etc)... I didn't actually take a photo of it, but there was also a large vinyl window sticker on display there which falls into the same category...



These are some of the other bits and pieces there that I liked for one reason or another.. be it process or just the idea behind them...

@ Carhartt (manchester)

I love this work for the recent Carhartt window display, I had planned on something VERY similar for my degree show back on my photography course... involving the idea that we take photographs of 3D objects which transcribes them into 2D but I wanted to turn them back into 3D. I found plenty of tutorials on how to do this via photoshop, made a few pairs of glasses and started playing with large images so the audience could maybe experience something else other than just looking at a photograph... but it was never meant to be and why I am now doing Illustration :)

anyway... removing half of the over complicated bullshit I planned to do, these displays simply have a pair of 3D (anaglyph) glasses stuck to the window infront of these large photographs/posters... I'm nothing but jealous... :) I want an excuse to use this technique again too!

In London:

first things first... I only know a few places to shop at in London, so if anyone has any other suggestions then fire away... but I ended up in my usual haunts whilst there... Magma, Kidrobot and Forbidden Planet.. but that doesnt mean I didnt do a little more wandering and investigating... found some more toy urban vinyl shops, 2nd hand book shops and comic stores which all led to the purchase of some of these...

Lines that Wiggle, by Candace Whitman, illustrations by Steve Wilson.

(i just tried finding a website for Wilson, but a lot of the work featured on the site looks NOTHING like the illustrations in this book, so I've left it off for now). I picked this up purely for its 'cute' quality and the characters featured in its pages. Described as a modern minimalist graphic art style, it appeals to my screenprint side and the humour within the work gives the impression that they enjoyed making it which in the end is what I need to remember to do.. have fun with what I'm creating... (also reminiscent to some of the other artists I enjoy looking at.. Tim Biskup and Adrian johnson for example...)

Poster Journeys by Abram Games & London Transport.

Unlike the majority of poster books I've picked up (and bought), this particular one doesnt just print the final images into a giant catalogue of work but instead shows some of Games' original sketches and roughs (unfortunately I havent had chance to scan any of these pages yet). It's not like I can learn how to be a better designer from looking at this prep work, but it helps seeing the creative process and how other people reach their final outcomes rather than just a glossy finished image. Normally I wouldn't have anything to do with London, but having spent a bit of time down there recently (due to my girlfriend living and studying down there at the moment), I feel like I understand the works a little deeper than just appreciating them on an aesthetic level.



Kidrobot
I can't help it... I end up buying something every time I go there... admittedly that's only twice so far, but it's not exactly cheap so it feels like I go there a lot... :( (just as bad as Magma!). Recently got...

and... one of these finally! not sure why i didnt get some sooner since I love the "style"...

Reminds me of early 1920's Steamboat Willie

FILE magazine.
stumbled upon this magazine in Magma (London) which isn't hard since its an oversized magazine, printed on newsprint at the size of a normal newspaper... I basically bought this as research for a personal collaboration project that I'm hoping will come to pass soon...

... and to finish off....

I also bought both of these... Ben Newman t-shirts on sale at Tate Modern...


Very similar to the work of Jim Flora from the 50's but again, I bought these for their cute appeal, they make me want to screenprint and the humour.. especially on the Robot t-shirt :)

Stick on faces

So, rather than finding faces in places, i decided to make them out of inanimate objects and the environment of Manchester... I didn't do as much with this as I'd have liked.. due to time and working on the D&AD brief more but with that said, I'm using this work as a starting point and hoping to continue some of it and experiment a little more with a few things... :)

i started with coming up with some elements that I could use to make faces with...




although i dont have photos of the in between process (yet).. I then drew these out again but larger and onto foam board... which actually takes a lot longer than you'd think.. and then I had to cut them out... so... basically due to poor time management on my behalf, this project is a little under developed.. but still i had fun with it... (hence why I'd like to carry it on)...

one thing that was discussed is the idea of only having 1 set of facial features and applying them to different shapes, objects and scales... I initially wanted to create varying shapes so the idea didnt become stale but I'm not really saying anything about the characters I've created or the objects upon which I've placed them... for example... the air vent/elephant image is appealing as it looks as if it has a character, as if it is mid action of blowing its horn/nose or whatever it is... but say the road sign image is just a face on a road sign... (originally meant to be zombie facial features). So, if i take 1 set of eyes, a nose and a mouth out but place these onto varying objects can i then personify everyday boring objects in Manchester?

Foto-Grafik

not my spelling but the tutors...

as a break from the hum drum of editorial briefs we were able to experiment with using photography within illustration. This started with simply drawing over some of my existing photos and trying find shapes within them too as the basis for creating characters...

apart from the last image, the others only run through once.. so either refresh or put up with it :P

I started by looking at some of my fave photographers and couldn't find a tangible link between the two subjects but looking at the work of jim Mahfood (see earlier post) I started to draw over my images and see what it made...

i was cutting out shapes in hopes that they would inspire some new character design but there was no solid theme behind them all... it was more about just me interpreting what I saw.

(pictures to follow)

similarly I have used this blog before last year, FacesInPlaces, and i thought I could go out and try find faces within inanimate objects to then work from but this is getting a little over done now... cute ... but still over done plus theres no real illustration aspect to it...

D&AD Don't Panic

Rather than focusing on my main project, I was side tracked into finalising my design for the D&AD competition brief, in association with Don't Panic. I thought I was finished and all i needed to do was print it out for the deadline, but after some useful pointers and crit from Chris O and Ian my design got a bit of an overhauling to make sure it was up to par...

From my original screen printed maze idea...

I kept with the idea of not following the rules but wanted to include more humour and get some of my drawing in there...

I wanted to include this development work, just to show that drawing a simple character.. isnt all that simple. From my original sketch, I tweaked bits left, right and centre... and then flipped the design to make sure nothing else stood out as "wrong". Tracing paper is my new friend, I used so much of it during this project but it allowed me to produce multiple versions of my work...

I ended up vectoring the character but I was adamant about trying to get away from the computer. When I make anything on the computer it gets sapped of all its character and "feeling"... theres a certain kind of quality to hand made images that is lost. Yet, by printing out the vector onto some cheap paper and scrunching it up, it once again becomes hand made and has a character to it...

All of the above culminated into this final design, from hand drawn elements to digital vectors and scanned in textures to digital colour all combine to give the effect of a real children's colouring book...

After finalising the colours on my designs I went back and reworked my original maze so it all tied together better.

These have been packaged up, sent off and emailed to D&AD... so... it's out of my hands now...

it's strange thinking about how I started this project when compared to how I ended it, but this has probably been one piece of work that I am most proud of... purely because it feels like something I have made for myself, from my own influences and inspirations.