Time Managment!

Today I had a group tutorial with Kit and realised just how much I need to do to do myself justice. I know I'm learning and researching but if I don't demonstrate it, how can I prove it?

After the tutorial I rushed home and made a list of things I need to do, things I should do and things I want to do. I have it clear the depth required from my sketchbook now. It has been difficult because the idea of keeping a sketchbook doesn't come naturally to me. I have a pocket Moleskine where I write ideas, websites etc, but to log my learning process through sketches, photos, cut outs, writings, thoughts etc., is new to me.

I think I may have to revisit Poole for my editorial Illustrations too. I think the photos I took where too detailed and not generic enough. I have really zoomed in on my subjects and feel now I would benefit from having more "overview" of Poole style photos. Maybe I'll shoot over on my Vespa early Saturday morning. Weather permitting! :-)

Tomorrow I have my 2nd Illustrator class but I wasn't aware of this and due to work commitments won't be able to make it. I tried to call today to advise Clive but couldn't locate him. I'll have to hunt him down and ask him to run through it with me one-to one.

Work does have a lot to answer for so far. Obviously I knew before I started I would have to balance things well, but losing all day Thursday and Friday is really hard. The weekends are non existent at the moment, just a blur of mostly reading course material and the Sundays, sketchbooks and trying to have some sort of life! How selfish!

This weekend is going to be another marathon, but I like it really. It's all for my good.

A Bit Of Guidance

Today I met with Sally after deciding that I needed a bit of direction. Like most, I was feeling a bit daunted by the amount of work we were given and even more so the impending deadline dates.

She promised no boll*ckings would be given so I showed her what I had done and bounced some ideas off her. I think I was mostly unsure of sketchbook use and referencing. It was a really helpful session and I now have clear my idea for almost everything for Text & Image, with the exception of the 3 illustrations. I went away and jotted ideas down in my sketchbook and feel a lot more comfortable with the whole subject.

For the Vernacular Typography brief I want to produce my three sets with a non English feel to it. I am going to look through my photos and aim to produce one on Catalan Typography, one on Spanish Typography and another on Braille. This last one might not be possible as I'm not sure if I have enough images, so I will use Chinese typography from soho/China town in London if necessary.

Tomorrow is my penultimate session in the print room :-( I need to produce an abstract piece and my best idea so far is to produce the word Belong with a large B and the other letters printed inside of the B...it would be easier to show it than to explain! But I'm not settled on that idea and knowing me I will almost certainly think of something last minute.

PAL

During our PAL session today we were encouraged to personalise our blogs. I wasn't feeling particularly creative at that moment so I did some research instead by reading 2nd year Vis Com students blogs. I love the illustrations by Jennifer Cant for her greetings cards but what most caught my eye was her final piece for her look again/think again. I think this is excellent and one of the best pieces I've seen from someone at the Arts Institute. Strong concept and fantastically communicated. I hope I can get to that level!

Print Room - Love It!

We were let loose on the Print room today and it was great! Last time was a bit of a rush but this time we had a good few hours to play and experiment with the wording, layout, fonts and colouring of our work.

I decided not to use the Kenyan Proverb from last time, as I much prefer the feeling of the quote from Mark Twain. I discussed with Kit whether I would have time to use the whole quote and she suggested I concentrate only on one part. I decided the most powerful part was at the end with the words, "Sail from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I then decided to work backwards and started making up the words, Explore, Dream and Discover. The 1st type that caught my eye was the extra large letters and I thought if I used one letter from each word and using the large font, then the remaining letters in smaller font with a mixture of lower case and capitols. Characters are in short supply and it's very much a case of getting in first to avoid having to wait til someone else has finished. I made my text up quickly and was really pleased, although not until I had printed did I realise that I had placed the "d" from "dream" the wrong way around to spell "bream"! I tried to pass it off as experimental and then changed it quickly and acted nonchalant.

I wanted to use vibrant colours for each of my words as they a represent strong meaning. I decided on blue and yellow for "dream" and "discover" respectively and decided to use black and white for "Explore" as I wanted to have an extra large black cross for the "X", as if to donate "X" marks the spot, just like on a map (map, explore, treasure)

I was pleased with the way all my print work came out, particularly the word "Explore" with the large X and the rest of the word written vertically down the side of the X and using the symbol "3" instead of a "e". Kit seemed to like it too as she asked if she could keep one of them :-)

I tried different techniques like printing the same text again after moving the paper slightly to the left and right which I was particularly please with, giving the words almost and echo. I also tried some off printing too but the results weren't so impressive, but you have to try these things!

I thoroughly enjoyed the letter press workshop and hope to get another opportunity again soon to finish my poem and also just to experiment. My favourite exercise of the course so far without doubt.

Photoshop

Clive gave us our first taster of this huge programme today. It was fairly easy techniques a lot of which I already knew - maybe I'm not as poor on photoshop as I thought! The handout, or should I say bible, that was given out though, will take some digesting!

He certainly knows his stuff and explains everything pretty clearly. He said you just have do dive in and have a go and I intend to use it more and more often, not just at work. I thought when he explained about saving work was good too, anyone can save a document but it doesn't look good in front of a client to have search through several folders before finding what you want. We've got another session tomorrow and I've just finished 3 hours on my evening graphic design course using Photoshop too, so I should be up to speed before long!

Moday's "Drift" Critique

We were asked last Tuesday to come up with an image or a series of images to show a journey or a feeling when in a new place when you drift through it.

Most people had chosen London purely due to last weeks visit and that it's a little bit different to Bournemouth. I chose images I had taken whilst in Barcelona a couple of weeks ago.

The main image is taken from near Montjuic looking over the city. Although I know the city well having lived there, this was the first time I had looked out over the city in this way and I was confused as to the location of certain iconic symbols; such as The Sagrada Familia, Park Guell etc.

For the main background image I used a poster edges effect from Photoshop to give the image less definition and recognisable line, creating a more confusing city line, to represent how I felt when viewing this busy scene.

I used pictures of certain places purposely situated in the wrong location to give my feeling of being lost in a place I know so well. I used other images from the day and changed the opacity so that the image behind could be seen but also to reflect my poor memory...I knew what they were but wasn't sure when or where I'd seen them that day.

I placed a photo of a Gaudi mosaic effect in the foreground on a blank wall and used the Sun from Joan Miro to represent the heat of the day and also cover a small blemish I had on the lens of the camera! :-)

Neil said he reminded him of a picture from the travel section of "The Guardian", which I took as a massive complement. I've been reading the Observer for years and I can sort of see what he means...maybe the style sunk in subliminally over the years?

It made me think about trying to do something with a newspaper type article for the Poole project. I really struggling for ideas for that one!

2nd PAL Session + Less Structure = Success

Today we had another session with Vicky, Luke, George and Ringo which was quite beneficial as we were able to see some of their 1st year work and projects. Pretty good standard all round and made me realise I need to put more into my sketchbook NOW!!! I knew I was behind but realise now just how far behind :-0

Really enjoyed the flash animations that we were shown. George's LEGO one was excellent and I would like to do something similar if possible. I brought loads of Play Mobile toys from a shop in Brighton and I would love to set these to a song and make a little music video using them...not sure what our brief will involve, we'll have to see...but I've been wanting to use the toys since I brought them!

The session was a bit something and nothing, I don't think they planned the time too well but in all honesty, it worked better that way. Less structure meant it was less formal and we ended up all talking about different aspects of the course - for me personally it worked well and in the end we over ran into the next hour with a class outside waiting for us to finish!

They all have a different take on things and it's good to hear what they have to say. One point Luke made was that last year they mentioned that the critiques took too long because the group was too large, which is also the same for us I feel.

They're all approachable and friendly too, which sounds obvious but hearing feedback from others in our year, not all PAL sessions are as enjoyable or beneficial as ours.

Muse Of Fire - Kyle Cooper

Wednesday we went to London to get some images for our vernacular photography project and attend a D&AD Presidents Lecture given By Kyle Cooper.

After what seemed like days on the bus we arrived and Ollie, Chris and I shot off to get a a coffee and a feed. We then braved the elements to walk down the strand, through Covent Garden and into Soho taking pictures of any type we thought could be useful. As we all went the same way we all have very similar pictures I imagine. It was strange being back in Soho after so many years working there...bit less stressful this time around :-)

Not sure what 3 subjects I'm going to use for the Vernacular Type brief yet, so I literally shot everything that didn't move...numbers, letters, signs, billboards, posters, stickers. I should have a really good base to start from now.

Kyle Cooper

To say this talk was inspirational would be the understatement of the course so far. Kyle Cooper has produced title credits for many huge blockbuster films and is often compared to a modern day Saul Bass (more about him later). Although he tries to distant himself from this, both have produced ground breaking historical steps in film/Graphic design and it is inevitable.

He started with a speech from Henry V that seemed a little strange at first (although well remembered!) but he kept referencing lines from this piece to explain his thought process and inspiration when working on a title sequence or any new piece of work.

He refers to the term "Muse Of Fire", meaning this great inspiration to do something so well. That a title sequence needs to be a metaphor for the film using typographic wordplay. It needs to define the title of the film, although how much depends on each director. He showed examples from several films including Spiderman 3, Gattaca and Se7en. For the titles in seven he told us how he ran around his own home in search for ideas which included cutting the word "God" form a dollar bill, to represent that the serial killer thinks he is God by judging all others. The hair being pushed into the envelope is hair, he claims, from his own bathroom plug hole!

One of the most simple I thought was the titles for Wimbledon. Such an instant, simple idea, executed so well. What happens at a Tennis Match? Well, the crowd move their heads in time with the ball, giving a left-right-left motion, played upon by Cooper as if the crowd are in fact looking at the names of the title sequence popping up.

Dawn of The Dead was also fantastic. He used hand rendered graphics, painted in blood red, onto black cards and sprayed with acetone to make the effect of melting. This was sandwiched between 8-10 frames of footage that would show carnage as the Dead attacked the living, also using footage of Wars, Muslims praying...all set to a soundtrack of Johnny Cash singing "The Man Comes Around" the lyrics of which marry perfectly to the action.

A round of questions at the end was brief, with Cooper explaining about he doesn't always get to choose the music that goes with the film and that he doesn't see himself carrying on Bass's work, he's doing his own thing and was never really exposed to Bass by his Mentor at Yale Paul Rand, but is proud to be thought of in the same group as Bass.

Kyle Cooper founded companies:

http://www.imaginaryforces.com/
http://www.prologue.com/

PAL groups & Letter Press

Monday was a chance to size up the 2nd years as we were introduced to them through our PAL session. Not sure who was more uncomfortable at first, us or them!

They had decided to use pass the parcel as an ice breaker to get to know us and for us to get to know us too!!! They had put a fair bit of effort in to the game and it was all relaxed and good fun. I had to show everyone my party trick...only problem being, I don't have one! None of it was taken serioulsy though. After I stayed behind to chat with Vicky, Luke and George and they were all happy to talk about the course and anythign really. It's useful to know them, handy for tips, advice and also nice to just know more people :-)

Letter Press...

On tuesday we were able to get our hands dirty using letter press for the first time. We were asked to look for a piece of litery text that describes or details a place of a sense of journey and to use some of the content for our letter press induction.

I trawled through pages of naff poetry on the net before turing to some Lonely Planet journals I have at home.

I wanted to use this Mark Twain quote but it's probably too long;

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't dothan the one's you did do. Throw off the bowlines, Sail from the safe harbour, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

I wrote this in the front of my diary when I was travelling just as a reminder to try everything when the oppertunity comes up.

So I think I'm going to use this Kenyan Proverb;

"Treat the earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children".

Although knowing me, I will change my mind several times in the next hour alone!

I used a mixture of lower case and upper case in different typefaces to spell the words "Kenyan Proverb". It came out pretty much as I hoped. I put less ink on some parts to give a worn effect and used the letter "V" upside down for "A" and some letters back to front. I like it!

The process is pretty straight forward but it does give you an idea of how long it would have taken to produce a page or even a book using this method. But I find it quite therepuetic and I can't wait to get in the press room again and just experiment.

BCN

A little apprehensive about returning back to the course tomorrow as I was away last week in Barcelona. Whilst I'm sure I didn't miss much, I hate playing catch up at the best of times, but in this case I think it was worth it...

Barcelona is simply the best city in the world for me (closely followed by Buenos Aires and New York if you're asking).

It has such a strong artistic feel to the city from the fantastic buildings of Antonio Gaudi to the works of Picasso, Dali and Joan Miro. I was lucky enough to live in this city for 3 years and it changed my life. I went from being a naive boy from a small town in Bournemouth to absorbing all that Barcelona had to offer. For the first time in my life I wanted to visit art galleries and look at things closer. Everything is so accessible in this city and even if you're not interested in art or design, you can't help but be amazed.

Gaudi's Sagrada Familia is his most famous creation but I prefer the smaller Casa Batllo and La Pedrera buildings. These are exactly as Gaudi intended them to be whereas the Sagrada Familia has been extended using ideas from other leading architects to continue Gaudi's plan. I love the mosaic affect used heavily throughout the Gaudi's buildings and the city itself, it really helps to form an identity of the city. You know you are in Barcelona when you see this!

I feel it's the design capitol of mainland Europe, so many designers have worked or do work here or have taken inspiration from time spent here. It's an iconic city bursting with creativity and fresh ideas.

Although it was only a quick visit, intended to visit my girlfriends family, we took advantage and did as much as possible in the short time space. This time I went back with our recent introduction to typography still ringing in my ears and tried to look at the type used in the city in different ways and also some examples of graphic design that took my eye.

x height & ampersands

Typography! Can be the sort of subject to kill off a dinner party or ignite passions in certain people, fortunately I belong to the latter group. I can't explain why I like type or why I find it interesting but through this course and some self study I am hoping to learn more about it.

This week we got started on some typographic components and explored Helvetica. Through learning the component names of characters it helped me understand a lot more about type and how to talk about it. I already knew about serif and sans-serif but this week has gone a little deeper and together with reading "Type & Typography" (P Baines and A Haslam) I now have a slightly broader understanding.

The importance of type in graphic design is fundemental. A certain style of type can hold someone's interest or alienate them immediately. There is a feel to a typeface that is hard to express in words...you can feel when type works and when it doesn't, it's obvious, but to explain it...well hopefully that will come :-)

Helvetica is generally thought to be the most beautiful of typefaces. It was developed in 1957 by Max Miedinger in Switzerland. It was so popular after its release that it appeared everywhere in graphic art and advertising. Sans serif, it had a bold new look from anything seen before. So high was it's popularity that it was used heavily until the early 70's when designers craved something newer, Helvetica had been over used and over done.

I find this similar in ways to some modern designer brand clothing. Loius Vuitton handbags are well designed, constructed from the finest leather with a distinctive type of its own printed onto the surface, which all together gives the assurance of a quality product. However, these bags are so over used and immitated, a problem suffered also by Helvetica in the form of Arial, that it looses it's appeal. When everyone owns the same handbag (or a copy) it loses it's identification and originality. You can't doubt the quality or style of Helvetica and Louis Vuitton, but would you want to use a typeface that has been so over used in graphic design just for that reason or a bag that is over seen in public?

There is obviously still a place for Helvetica in the desgin world as it remains as popular today as 50 years ago and a quick walk around any city or town in the western world would confirm this. Most of the signs for bus timetables, undergrounds and shop fronts use Helvetica as it's so easy and clear to read. In fact it's hard to imagine a world without Helvetica; it is everywhere you look.

Enough of type for now, wouldn't want to kill off the dinner party!